UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT    LOS  ANGELES 


Social  Welfare  and  the 
Liquor  Problem 


A  SERIES  OF  STUDIES  IN 
THE  SOURCES  OF  THE 
PROBLEM  AND  HOW  THEY 
RELATE  TO  ITS  SOLUTION 


BY  HARRY  S.  WARNER 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE    INTERCOLLEGIATE    PROHIBITION    ASSOCIATION 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 

1909 


Copyright  1908 

BY 

Harry  S.  Warner. 


PREFACE. 

"The  so-called  personal  liberty  argument  in  behalf 
of  alcoholic  drink  loses  more  and  more  of  its  force. 
Consideration  of  the  public  welfare  continues  to 
grow  and  overshadow  the  rights  of  the  individual. 
The  drink  question  must  be  fought  out  upon  the  ulti- 
mate foundation  of  morals,  hygiene  and  social  order 
— in  other  words,  the  public  welfare.  If  the  public 
welfare  requires  the  suppression  of  the  alcoholic 
drink  traffic  it  should  be  suppressed." — From  an  edi- 
torial in  the  American  Brezvers'  Rez'iew. 

In  a  debate  the  first  step  necessary  is  to  state  the 
question — to  agree  on  a  ground  on  which  to  disagree. 
No  social  or  political  writer  has  more  correctly 
stated  the  basis  on  which  the  liquor  question  is  to  be 
fought  out,  and  satisfactory  settlement  reached,  than 
has  this  editorial  writer  on  the  pro-liquor  side  of 
the  controversy. 

On  this  basis  the  question  is  before  the  American 
people  "on  its  merits  only." 

In  this  volume  an  attempt  is  made  to  collect,  in 
systematic  and  scientific  order,  for  purposes  of  study 
and  further  investigation,  very  briefly,  the  main 
facts  of  the  actual  present-day  American  liquor  prob- 
lem— to  get  together,  on  a  broad  basis,  the  materials 
needed  by  all  who  would  understand  the  question 
broadly,  and  be  of  lasting  service  in  bringing  the 
great,  ugly  question  to  complete  solution. 

Few  writers  have  attempted  to  get  hold  of  the 
3 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

sources  of  the  evil  and  to  base  their  principles  and 
methods  of  solution  in  accordance  with  all  these 
sources.  As  far  as  it  is  possible,  in  the  intensity  and 
heat  of  actual  reform,  this  should  be  done.  Whether 
the  attempt  here  is  successful  or  not  it  may  be  said 
that  it  has  been  made  honestly  and  conscientiously. 

The  book  does  not  assume  to  discuss  methods.  It 
endeavors  to  bring  out  the  broad  sociological  facts 
and  principles  relating  to  the  widespread  use  of  alco- 
holic liquor  on  which  permanent  methods  of  individ- 
ual and  social  reform  should  be  based. 

To  college  and  university  men  and  women,  and  to 
others  anxious  to  be  of  service  to  public  welfare  in 
the  overthrow  of  drink — in  that  to  which  the  book 
frankly  leads,  its  complete  banishment,  it  is  respect- 
fully dedicated. 

Harry  S.  Warner. 

Chicago,  111.,  April  1,  1909. 


CONTENTS. 

(Bibliography  by  Subjects.) 


THE   SOURCES   OF   THE    PROBLEM. 

Chapter  Page 

I.  Liquor  a  Social  Problem   ...     9 

1.  Intemperance  a  race  characteristic. 

2.  The  origin  of  the  saloon  anJ  club. 

3.  Early  drinking  customs  in  the  U.  S. 

4.  The  problem  today;  what  it  is. 

5.  The  liquor  traffic  a  social  institution. 

6.  References  and   authorities 23 

II.  Sources  of  the  Liquor  Evil 25 

1.  The  evil,  one  of  consequences. 

2.  The  sources. 

(a)  The  physical. 

(b)  The  economic. 

(c)  The  social. 

(d)  The  political. 

3.  The  relation  of  the  trade  to  the  habit. 

4.  The  welfare  of  society  as  a  whole. 

5.  "The  social  demands." 

6.  References  and  authorities    40 

II. 

THE    DEMANDS    OF    SOCIAL    WELFARE. 

III.  Alcohol  and  Public  Health;  the  Physiologi- 

cal   Problem    ' 41 

1.  The  attractiveness  of  alcohol. 

2.  The  source  of  intoxication. 

3.  Is  alcohol  a  food? 

4.  Is  beer  "a  liquid  food?' 

5.  Alcohol  as  a  medicine. 

6.  References  and  authorities    57 

5 


\ 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

IV.  Alcohol    and    Public    Health ;    the    Practical 

Social    Problem    59 

— ■ —     1.  Alcohol  as  a  source  of  disease. 
•     (a)   Alcoholism  itself  a  disease. 

(b)  The   alcoholic  diseases. 
^ ,        (c)   Reduces  the  powers  of  resistance. 

(d)   Insanity  and  drink. 

2.  Intemperance    as    a   contributory   cause. 

3.  The  source  of  race  degeneracy. 

4.  Health  the  first  essential. 

5.  References  and  authorities    72 

V.  The  Public  Cost  of  the  Liquor  Habit 74 

1.  The  American  drink  bill. 

2.  The  first  cost  in  the  drink  bill. 

3.  The  consequential  cost. 

(a)  Loss  of  time  and  capacity. 

(b)  Loss  of  life. 

(c)  Deterioration  in  personal  capacity. 

(d)  Expense  in  care  and  support. 
Relation  of  liquor  to  poverty. 
The  burden  in  care  and  support. 

(a)  In  dependents,  defectives,  etc. 

(b)  Prosecution  and  care  of  criminals. 

6.  References  and  authorities   93 

VI.  Industrial  Welfare  and  the  Liquor  Problem  96 

1.  National  wealth  and  social   welfare. 

2.  Industrial  prohibition. 

x:— 3.  Liquor  and  the  length  of  life. 
*'  4.  The  economic  demands  for  prohibition. 
5.  References  and  authorities   106 

VII.  The  Relation  of  Liquor  to  Education 108 

CI.  The  saloon  and  the  public  school. 
2.  Delinquencies   and   disabilities   in   school 
children. 
'^  3.  The  mis-education  of  the  foreigner. 

4.  Its  mis-education  of  the  public. 

5.  Education  and  the  liquor  problem. 

6.  References  and  authorities   127 

VIII.  The  Social  Phase  of  the  Liquor  Problem.  129 

1.  The  Sociability  source  of  intemperance. 

2.  The  saloon  as  a  social  center. 

3.  "The  poor  man's  club." 

e 


CONTENTS 

4.  Counter  attractions. 

5.  "Reform   the   saloon" — the    subway    ex- 

periment. 

6.  Substitution  as  a  temperance  measure. 

7.  References  amd  authorities 146 

IX.    The  Ethical  Phase    149 

'^-"      1.  The  Social  ethics  of  the  saloon. 

2.  The  attitude  of  the  church. 

3.  Saloon  its  chief  competitor. 

4.  The  traffic  in  the  foreign  field. 

5.  Ethical  phase  of  the  license  policy. 

6.  Harmony    of    government    with    ethical 

welfare. 

7.  References  and  authorities    174 


THE  LIQUOR   CONFLICT   WITH   FUNDAMENTAL  SOCIAL 
INSTITUTIONS. 

X.     The   City   Problem    177 

1.  The  city  problem. 

2.  The  city  population. 

(a)  Aggravated    intemperance. 

(b)  Political  mis-education  of  foreign- 
ers. 

(c)  Distorted  ideas  of  personal  liberty. 

(d)  Crime. 

(e)  The  purchasable  vote. 

(fj   Extension  of  license  policy  to  other 
vices. 

3.  The  saloon  and  the  housing  problem. 

4.  The  city  vote. 

5.  References  and  authorities  193 

XL     Drink  and   the  Family    195 

1.  The  family  drink  bill. 

2.  The  suffering  unit. 

3.  Drink   among   women. 

4.  Liquor  and  national  welfare. 

5.  References  and  authorities    209 

XII.    Liquor  and  the  Labor  Problem    212 

1.  The  burden  of  intemperance  on  labor. 
~~2.  The  relation  of  drink  to  wages. 

3.  The  struggles  between  capital  and  labor. 
7 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

4.  As  an  employer  of  labor. 

5.  References  a.'nd  authorities    228 

XIII.     The  Conflict  of  Races 230 

-=r     1.  The  negro  and  drink. 

2.  Liquor  a  factor  in  race  conflicts. 

(a)   In   the   South. 

3.  The    saloon    in    political    and    social    as- 

similation. 

(a)  In  the  North. 

(b)  Stimulates   law-defying   spirit. 

(c)  Keeps  alive  old-world  customs. 

4.  America's  problem  of  races. 

5.  References  and   authorities    249 


THE   SOCIAL  BASIS   FOR   PROHIBITION. 

XIV.     The   Social   Demands   for   Prohibition. ..  .251 

1.  The  relation  of  sources  to  solution. 

(a)  The  desire  for  stimulants — "moral 
suasion,"  "substitution,"  public 
monopoly,  license  and  regulation, 
prohibition. 

(b)  The  economic. 

(c)  The   sociability   source. 

(d)  The  political. 

2.  The   social  basis ;    summary. 

3.  The  necessity  for  complete  overthrow. 

4.  References  and  authorities  266 

Index   268 


CHAPTER  I. 

LIQUOR  A  SOCIAL  PROBLEM. 


9 


Intemperance   a   Race   Characteristic. — Are 
the  social  habits  and  tendencies  of  a  people 
as  a  whole  transmissible   or  inherent?    Is  the 
manhood  character  of  one  generation  influ- 
enced at  all  by   the  childhood   training  and 
home  influences  it  received  in  early  life  from 
the   preceding   generation?     Then   the  drink 
habit  is   well   fixed   in   a   large   part  of   our 
present  American  social  customs. 
^,.-'^fter  hundreds  of  years  of  practice  drunk-   ^ 
enness  has  become  a  great  national  habit.     It    / 
is  in  the  blood  of  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  races 
of  the  present  day — inherited  from  the  early 
Saxons.    Its  consequences,  good  or  bad,  reach, 
directly  and  indirectly,  both  the  individual  in 
modern  society  and  that  society  as  a  whole^    ^ 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  those  who  are-peP^ 
sonally  most  free  from  the  vice  suffer  its  ef- 
fects in  private  life  and  its  consequences  upon 
public  institutions.    It  is  therefore  a  pertinent 
public  social  problem. 

Carlyle  says,  "If  you  would  know  what  are 
the  fundamental  traits  of  a  race  catch  it  and 
study  it  before  Christianity  and  civilization 
have  tamed  it."  Tacitus  describes  the  ancient 
Britons  as  having  ravenous  stomachs,  filled 
with  meat  and  cheese  and  heated  with  strong 

9 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

drink.  The  severe  climate  and  rigors  of  their 
life  led  to  wild  excesses.  Heaven  was  con- 
ceived of  as  a  drunken  revel  and  the  drinking 
of  blood  diluted  with  wine  was  a  foretaste  of 
Paradise.  <  The  history  of  England,  down  even 
to  the  present  day,  is  not  complete  without  a 
mention  of  the  drinking  habits  prevailing  so 
largely  in  all  classes.  Its  literature,  poetry  and 
song  show  how  widely  prevalent  was  the  use 
of  wine,  gin  and  ale.  And  the  more  serious 
writings  occasionally  give  pictures  of  the  awful 
wretchedness,  poverty  and  social  corruption 
resulting. 

Lecky,  writing  of  gin  drinking  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  says :  "Small  as  is 
the  place  which  this  fact  occupies  in  English 
history,  it  was  probably,  if  we  consider  all  the 
consequences  that  have  flowed  from  it,  the 
most  momentous  in  that  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury— incomparably  more  so  than  any  event  in 
the  purely  political  or  military  annals  of  the 
country.  The  fatal  passion  for  drink  was  at 
once,  and  irrevocably,  planted  in  the  nation. 
The  average  of  British  spirits  distilled,  which 
is  said  to  have  been  only  527,000  gallons  in 
168-I,  had  risen  in  1727  to  3,601,000.  F'hysi- 
cians  declared  that  in  excessive  gin  drinking  a 
new  and  terrible  source  of  mortality  had  been 
opened  for  the  poor.  The  grand  jury  of  Mid- 
dlesex declared  that  much  the  greater  part  of 
the  povcrt .',  the  murders,  the  robberies  of 
London  might  be  traced  to  this  single  cause. 
Retailers  of  gin  were  accustomed  to  hang  out 
painted  boards  announcing  that  their  custom- 
10 


LIQUOR    A    SOCIAL    PROBLEM.  ^ 

ers  could  be  made  drunk  for  a  penny,  dead 
drunk  for  two  pence  and  have  straw  for 
nothing;  and  cellars  strewn  with  straw  were 
accordingly  provided,  into  which  those  who 
had  become  insensible  were  dragged,  and 
where  they  remained  until  they  had  become 
sufficiently  recovered  to  renew  their  orgies." 

The  early  colonists  of  America  brought  with 
them  their  love  for  strong  drink  and  the  social  \ 
drinking  customs  inherited  from  the  earlier  / 
Britons  and  other  Teutonic  countries.  In  the 
first  part  of  the  present  century  almost  every- 
body drank;  it  was  used  by  laboring  men  in 
winter  to  keep  them  warm ;  in  fact,  in  New 
England  the  fathers  thought  that  nothing  but 
the  stronger  drinks  could  ward  off  of  the 
rigors  of  that  climate ;  in  summer  it  was  used, 
as  at  present,  to  keep  them  cool ;  farmers  fur- 
nished it  to  harvest  hands  in  the  fields  to  en- 
able them  to  do  more  work  in  a  day ;  gentle- 
men caroused  openly  in  the  public  taverns ; 
preachers  drank  with  their  parishioners,  and 
scarcely  a  social  event  of  any  kind  occurred  in 
which  it  was  not  a  factor.  It  was  respectable, 
not  merely  to  drink,  hut  to  get  beastly  drunk. 

It  was  during  the  first  few  years  of  the 
American  republic,  before  the  temperance  agi- 
tation began,  that  intemperance  was  most 
widely  spread  among  all  classes.  Since  that 
time  a  differentiation  has  been  taking  place. 
In  1800  almost  everybody  drank;  at  the  pres- 
ent time  scarcely  one  out  of  four  is  an  habitual 
or  even  occasional  user  of  alcoholic  liquors. 
Certain  classes  of  our  society  drink  more ;  oth- 
11 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

ers  drink  little  or  nothing  at  all.  The  total 
consumption  of  liquors  has  in  no  way  de- 
creased ;  in  fact,  it  has  steadily  increased 
tliroughout  the  century.  By  1840,  at  which 
time  the  active  temperance  agitation  had  well 
set  in,  and  at  which  time  the  most  accurate 
figures  are  first  available,  the  per  capita  con- 
sumption of  liquors  was  4.17  gallons;  in  1906 
it  had  increased  to  22.27  gallons  for  every  man, 
woman  and  child  of  our  84,000,000  population. 
A  part  of  this  tremendous  increase  is  due  to 
the  larger  use  of  beer  and  the  lighter  wines, 
and  a  relatively  smaller  use  of  distilled  liquors, 
yet  the  total  amount  of  alcohol  consumed  has 
increased  notwithstanding  this  substitution. 

The  social  fact  to  be  noted  here  is  that  even 
witli  the  temperance  classes  vastly  in  the  ma- 
jority, and  growing,  among  the  American  peo- 
ple, the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  yet  comes  dan- 
gerously near  to  being  a  race  characteristic — 
a  race  blight — as  it  is  of  the  English,  German, 
Irish  and  other  Keltic  and  Teutonic  nationali- 
ties. It  was  from  these  peoples  that  our  im- 
migration for  the  first  hundred  years  came 
almost  exclusively,  bringing  along  their  well- 
fixed  drinking  habits.  Since  1900  the  million 
immigrants  arriving  each  year  are  recruited 
very  largely  from  the  Italians,  Hebrews,  Polish 
ancl  Slovaks,  people  less  given  in  their  own 
countries  to  drinking  than  were  the  earlier 
North  European  immigrants.  Yet  their  native 
physical  endurance  is  less  and  they  more  quick- 
ly sufYer  from  the  vices  accompanying  the 
saloons  in  the  poorer  parts  of  our  great  cities 
into  which  they  are  crowded. 
12 


LIQUOR    A    SOCIAL    PROBLEM. 

As  a  race  characteristic  the  drink  habit  is  a 
vital  pubHc  question.  Not  so  much  on  account 
of  the  ininiecHate  effects — the  drunkards  it 
makes,  the  crime  and  poverty  that  come  from 
it — as  because  it  undermines  race  vitahty.  In 
this  it  is  the  pet  danger  of  the  German,  French 
and  EngHsh-speaking  nations.  In  Dr.  Brin- 
ton's  noted  book,  "The  Basis  of  Social  Rela- 
tions," drunkenness  is  described  as  the  most 
formidable  agent  of  degeneration  in  modern 
society.  He  says :  "Its  worst  effects  are  not 
the  violence  to  which  it  occasionally  leads  or 
the  frightful  nervous  diseases  which  its  ex- 
cessive use  entails,  but  the  slow  hardening  of 
the  'axis  cylinders'  in  the  nerve  sheaths,  tht 
immediate  consequence  of  wliich  is  permanent 
deterioration  of  mental  activity.  Extended 
throughout  a  community,  this  means  a  lessen-"" 
ing  of  its  energy  and  of  its  finest  mental  quali- 
ties. Chronic  alcoholism  of  this  kind  does  not 
materially  shorten  life,  but  it  is  eminently 
transmissible,  and  this  soddens  the  stock." 

The  Origin  of  the  Saloon  and  of  the  Club. 
— ^The  saloon  of  America,  or  the  public 
house  as  it  is  called  in  Great  Britain,  is  the 
well-known  public  institution  for  the  retail 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors.  It  has  long  served 
a  double  capacity  to  the  great  advantage  of  its 
owner;  (i)  the  place  of  sale  and,  (2),  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  a  place  for  social  inter- 
course and  social  drinking. 

In  this  capacity  it  came  to  America  ready- 
made.    Its  origin  may  be  traced  back  to  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  wh-en  houses  for  dispensing  hos- 
18 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

pitality  to  travelers  kept  liquors ;  at  times 
these  taverns  were  even  compelled  by  law  to 
do  so  for  the  entertainment  of  their  c^uests. 
The  quaint  tavern  signboard,  introduced  by 
the  Romans,  has  become  now  the  distinctive 
mark  of  the  public  house  in  England.  The 
practice  of  toasting  and  drinking  to  the  health 
came  in  this  same  early  period.  As  early  as 
the  ninth  century  the  ale  house,  the  real  prede- 
cessor of  the  modern  saloon,  began  to  appear. 

"Around  the  cala-hus,  the  7ciii-hiis  and  the 
tavern,  there  developed  the  Anglo-Saxon 
guild.  The  members  of  these  social  confed- 
erations were  each  required  to  bring  a  certain 
amount  of  malt  or  honey  to  their  meetings. 
Delinquencies  in  this  respect  were  punished 
with  a  fine  sufficiently  heavy  to  stimulate  the 
memory.  These  guilds  have  left  their  mark 
upon  the  public  house  in  giving  it  a  certain 
respectability  as  a  social  club." 

Ale,  a  malt  drink  much  resembling  beer  but 
with  a  somewhat  higher  percent  of  alcohol, 
was  first  introduced  as  a  sort  of  temperance 
beverage  to  take  the  place  of  wine.  This  "sub- 
stitute" thus  got  its  early  grip  upon  the  Eng- 
lish appetite  and  holds  it  until  the  present  day, 
making  that  people  among  the  most  drunken 
of  all  ])eoples. 

The  semi-private  club  is  a  contribution  of 
the  Elizabethan  period.  Its  first  objects  seem 
to  be  a  combination  of  literary,  social  and 
drinking  purposes.  It  differed  from  the  guild 
in  that  its  membership  was  received  from  the 
select  classes  and  that  it  supported  a  well- 
14 


LIQUOR   A    SOCIAL    PROBLEM. 

appointed  establishment  of  its  own.  "The 
Mermaid  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
London  clubs  and  included  in  its  membership 
such  well-known  names  as  Shakespeare, 
Raleigh,  Ben  Jonson,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 
During  the  rei,<n  of  the  Stuarts  and  Hanovers 
the  ale-house  and  the  tavern  reached  the  com- 
plexion of  the  present  public  house  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  saloon  of  America.  It  became 
the  'poor  man's  club.'  It  was  the  place  where 
politicians  met  to  discuss  men  and  measures, 
where  business  men  repaired  to  negotiate  or 
conclude  their  bargains,  where  toilet  conven- 
iences were  freely  provided  and  where  social 
and  political  'influence'  began  to  take  the  form 
of  treating." 

Early  Drinking  Customs  in  the  United 
States. — A  hundred  years  ago  almost  every- 
body "took  a  little  something"  in  the  way  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  occasionally  or  oftener.  Now 
scarcely  one  out  of  four  ever  drinks.  The 
change  has  been  something  stupendous ;  some- 
thing seldom  equaled  in  the  social  reform  his- 
tory of  the  world. 

He  is  but  a  narrow  student  of  the  liquor 
problem,  and  in  no  sense  a  student  of  history, 
who  fails  to  appreciate,  to  some  degree,  a  few 
noticeable  points  in  this  movement  of  past  and 
future : 

1.  How  deeply  drinking  customs  were  in- 
grained into  practical  everyday  life  when  the 
temperance  movement  first  began  in  1808. 

2.  How  much  of  a  change  in  personal  hab- 
its and  social  customs  of  millions  of  people  is 

15 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

implied  in  a  complete  banishment  of  the  liquor 
habit. 

3.  How  much  has  already  been  done  in  the 
establishment  of  total  abstinence  among  three- 
fourths  of  our  population. 

It  was  but  a  little  more  than  one  hundred 
years  ago  that  the  first  clear-cut  arp^ument  for 
temperance  gained  attention.  The  famous  es- 
say by  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  on  The  EflFects  of 
Ardent  Spirits  on  the  Human  Mind  and  Body, 
published  in  1785,  first  called  general  atten- 
tion to  the  serious  evils  in  the  immoderate  use 
of  intoxicating  liquors  and  recommended 
that  men  should  stop  it.  Dr.  Rush,  as  a 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  a 
leader  of  the  medical  profession  and  a  pro- 
moter of  various  interests  of  humanity  and 
religion  of  his  day.  had  sufficient  public  au- 
thority to  give  his  then  radical  views  thorough 
attention.  Ministers  began  to  preach  upon  the 
subject  and  churches  to  favor  temperance,  but 
it  was  not  until  1808  that  the  first  organized 
effort  was  launched.  This  was  a  temperance 
society  with  47  members,  organized  at  Moreau, 
N.  Y.,  by  Billy  J.  Clark,  in' 1808.  The  pledge 
was  introduced  and  applied  to  the  use  of 
ardent  spirits  and  wine,  except  in  case  of  sick- 
ness and  at  public  dinners.  Malt  liquors  were 
not  included,  as  they  were  thought  to  be  tem- 
perance drinks.  A  fine  of  twenty-five  cents 
was  imposed  for  breaking  the  pledge  and  fifty 
cents  for  actual  intoxication. 

At  this  time,  and  for  a  long  time  after, 
liquor  drinking  was  sanctioned  by  the  church. 

16 


LIQUOR    A    SOCIAL    PROBLEM. 

The  clergy  drank  with  their  people  and  before 
entering  their  pulpits ;  dealers  and  innkeepers 
were  first-class  members  in  nearly  every 
church,  and  liquors  were  used  at  various  kinds 
of  religious  functions.  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher 
describes  an  ordination  at  Plymouth,  Conn., 
in  i8io,  as  follows:  "At  this  ordination  the 
preparation  for  our  creature  comforts,  .  .  . 
besides  food,  was  a  broad  sideboard  covered 
with  decanters  and  bottles  and  sugar  and 
pitchers  of  water.  There  we  found  all  kinds 
of  liquors  then  in  vogue.  The  drinking  was 
apparently  universal.  This  preparation  was 
made  by  the  society  as  a  matter  of  course. 
When  the  consociation  arrived  they  always 
took  something  to  drink  around,  also  before 
public  services,  and  always  on  their  return. 
.  The  noise,  I  cannot  describe ;  it  was 
the  maximum  of  hilarity.  They  told  their 
stories  and  were  at  the  height  of  jocose  talk." 

The  wedding  feast  and  the  funeral  were 
equally  incomplete  without  an  accompanying 
period  of  drinking.  At  the  funeral  of  a  cer- 
tain minister  one  barrel  of  wine  and  two  bar- 
rels of  cider  were  consumed  by  the  mourners. 
Towns  frequently  supplied  drinks  at  public 
expense  at  the  burial  of  paupers.  Barn-rais- 
ings, huskings  and  harvest  time,  among  the 
farmers  were  accompanied  with  the  freest  in- 
dulgence, and  college  commencements  were 
the  occasions  for  drunkenness  by  students, 
members  of  the  faculty  and  visiting  alumni 
alike. 

The  Problem  Today  :    What  is  It  ?— What 

17 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM, 

is  "the  liquor  problem"  of  the  early  twentieth 
century?  It  is  "the  temperance  question"? 
Is  it  "temperance"  at  all?  How  much  may 
a  man  drink  and  remain  decently  sober  or  not 
injure  himself?  or  hold  his  position?  or  keep 
between  the  two  edges  of  a  sidewalk?  or  sup- 
port his  wife  and  cliildren? 

Is  it  total  abstinence — the  use  or  non-use  of 
a  poison  or  of  a  harmless  stimulant? 

Is  it  morals?  Is  it  wrong  to  drink  a  single 
glass  of  beer  once  in  ten  years?  or  ten  glasses 
in  a  half  hour?    Is  it  an  evil  per  sef 

Is  it  wrong  on  account  of  the  injury  falling 
upon  his  neighbor,  or  upon  himself  alone,  or 
should  a  man  abstain  for  the  sake  of  his 
weaker  brother? 

Has  government  anything  to  do  with  it? 
Have  the  many  any  right  to  dictate  the  tastes 
and  habits  of  the  few  any  more  than  a  few 
have  the  right  to  dominate  over  the  many? 
Or  does  the  public  demand  protection  from 
the  vices  of  the  few  ? 

Is  the  saloon  "the  pest-house  of  crime"  or 
"the  poor  man's  club"?  Why  is  it  here?  Why 
does  it  continue  so  long?  Are  its  evils  inherent 
and  incurable,  or  may  they  be  eliminated? 
Does  it  supply  a  neglected  social  need? 

Is  the  trade  a  compact  institution  for  the 
sale  of  dissipation?  a  trade  feeding  upon  the 
vices  of  the  poor  or  a  legitimate  means  of 
earning  a  living? 

Is  it  in  politics  ?  does  it  dictate  political  poli- 
cies, buy  legislatures  and  see  that  laws  are  en- 
forced to  suit  its  convenience?     Does  it  defy 

18 


LIQUOR   A    SOCIAL    PROBLEM. 

justice?  Does  it  control  political  parties? 
Does  it  preserve  a  political  balance  so  that  it 
may  carry  on  its  work  of  public  despoilation 
unmolested  ? 

It  is  not  a  moral  question.  Neither  is  it  a 
hygienic,  social,  industrial,  economic,  nor  even 
a  political  question.  It  is  all  of  these  com- 
bined. It  is  not  a  part ;  it  is  the  whole  and 
the  relation  of  all  the  parts  to  each  other  and 
to  other  social  problems. 

In  current  every-day  use  the  term  "liquor 
problem"  has  two  very  distinct  meanings.  The 
one  is  the  temperance  question,  including  over- 
indulgence in  alcoholic  liquors ;  the  effects 
of  intoxicants  upon  the  health,  finances, 
morals  and  social  surroundings  of  the  drinker 
and  his  family.  The  other  relates  to  that 
problem  which  comes  from  the  industrial  and 
political  power  of  the  liquor  trade ;  its  influ- 
ence in  business,  in  public  affairs,  on  justice 
and  in  politics. 

No  study  is  complete  or  fair  which  does 
not  include  both.  Public  welfare  is  intimately 
connected  with  both  intemperance  and  the 
trade  that  supplies  and  encourages  it.  Many 
of  the  most  perplexing  features  met  in  an  at-  , 

tempt  to  remedy  the  evils  can  be  understood  (--^ 
only  when  both  of  these  factors  are  taken 
together.  Pledge  signing  crusades  in  behalf 
of  the  drunkard,  regulation,  the  license  policy 
and  public  ownership  have  each  failed  wholly 
or  in  part  because  they  were  thought  sufficient 
to  cure  the  whole  evil  without  regard  to  all  of 
its  sources. 

19 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  present-day  problem  is  exceedingly 
complex  in  its  relations.  But  it  has  not  always 
been  so.  A  century  ago  when  the  reform 
movement  began  it  was  comparatively  simple. 
It  has  developed  somewhat  as  follows : 

1.  The  simple  temperance  question;  mod- 
eration first,  then  total  abstinence. 

2.  The  incoming  foreign  population  con- 
stantly adding  a  new  force  of  more  or  less 
moderate  drinkers  with  well-fixed  social  drink- 
ing customs.  This  has  been  a  constant  factor 
throughout  the  century. 

3.  The  development  of  the  saloon  and  its 
side  attractions  of  a  social  kind. 

4.  Political  complication  and  power  of  the 
trade,  beginning  with  the  Internal  Revenue 
Act  of  1862. 

5.  The  organization  and  monopolistic  char- 
acter of  the  business  of  the  present  day  and  its 
industrial  and  political  power. 

The  magnitude  of  the  question  is  almost 
beyond  comprehension.  It  infests  every  source 
of  public  welfare  and  is  intermixed  with  al- 
most every  social  or  political  question  of  the 
day.  Only  when  this  fact  is  appreciated  can 
we  gain  an  adequate  conception  of  the  task 
bequeathed  by  the  Nineteenth  Century  to  the 
young  men  and  women  of  the  Twentieth. 

In  this  broad,  comprehensive  sense  the  sub- 
ject is  here  treated  as  a  social  problem ;  that 
is,  it  embraces  all  the  interests  of  social  wel- 
fare and  most  of  the  organizations  that  ad- 
minister to  social  welfare,  as  well. 

It  is  as  necessary  to  understand  the  question 
20 


LIQUOR   A    SOCIAL   PROBLEM. 

as  a  whole — to  diagnose  the  case  correctly,  as 
it  is  to  prescribe  the  proper  treatment.  It  is 
the  hope  of  this  modest  study  to  do  a  little  of 
that  sort  of  broad  diagnosis  that  suggests  the 
remedy  with  some  degree  of  scientific  cer- 
tainty. To  "get  results"  in  public  agitation 
the  anti-liquor  worker  must  emphasize  repeat- 
edly, and  to  the  exclusion  of  other  considera- 
tions, one  line  of  thought.  This  is  the  narrow- 
ness of  specialization ;  but  his  preliminary 
study  should  be  as  broad  as  the  whole  problem 
itself,  or  much  broader,  if  he  is  to  remain 
faithful  to  truth  after  he  once  puts  his  heart 
into  some  definite  movement. 

The  Liquor  Traffic  a  Social  Institution. 
— The  personal  use  of  intoxicating  liquors, 
moderately  or  immoderately,  is  largely,  but 
by  no  means  wholly,  a  personal  matter  for 
private  attention.  The  trade,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  supplies  the  drink  is  almost  wholly 
a  social  problem.  It  is  in  itself  a  great  public 
fact.  It  is  a  public,  social  institution.  It 
exists  in  our  modern  American  life,  whether 
we  will  have  it  so  or  not.  The  term  includes 
all  those  men,  moneys,  interests,  organizations 
and  other  business  accompaniments  necessary 
to  the  production  and  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  of  any  kind.  It  is  the  economic  pro- 
vision for  the  supply  of  the  demand  created 
by  private  habit  and  social  custom,  and  stim- 
ulated by  the  financial  interests  of  those  en- 
gaged in  the  business. 

I.  All  trade,  buying,  selling,  manufacturing 
for  sale,  transportation  from  producer  to  con- 
81 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

sumer,  etc. — all  these  are  social  acts.  They 
involve  the  united  action  of  two  or  more  per- 
sons and  so  cannot  be  purely  private.  Mill 
says :  "Trade  is  a  social  act.  Whoever  under- 
takes to  sell  any  description  of  goods  to  the 
public  does  what  afifects  the  interests  of  other 
persons  and  of  society  in  general,  and  thus  his 
conduct  in  principle  comes  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  society." 

2.  It  has  grown  out  of  a  national  habit.  It 
was  the  chief  vice  of  the  nationalities  that  en- 
tered into  the  formation  of  the  present  Ameri- 
can people.  It  has  often  been  called  "that 
ulcer  of  the  civilization  of  the  Teutonic  races." 
The  Celtic,  French  and  Spanish  additions  to 
our  people  have  been  little  better. 

3.  It  has  acquired  a  place  for  itself  in  busi- 
ness, commerce,  custom  and  public  life  which 
must  be  recognized  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact. 

4.  It  has  been  recognized  and  treated  as 
such  for  hundreds  of  years  by  government, 
that  only  organized  form  of  society  which  is 
acknowledged  by  all  individuals. 

5.  Its  consequences  are  very  largely  such  as 
involve  the  public.  It  has  always  required 
more  public  regulation  and  control  than  any 
other  business.  It  is  intimately  connected  with 
vice  and  crime  and  stimulates  other  public 
means  of  social  dissipation. 

The  public  trade  and  its  social  and  political 
activities  constitute,  therefore,  the  liquor  prob- 
lem pre-eminent  of  the  present  day.  The  more 
distinctive  temperance  movement  has  been 
going  on  for  a  century.    Its  organizations  are 

32 


LIQUOR   A   SOCIAL    PROBLEM. 

well  developed ;  the  temperance  society,  the 
school  with  its  scientific  temperance  instruc- 
tion, the  church,  home  and  social  rescue  move- 
ments have  their  tasks  well  laid  out  before 
them.  To  supplement  their  work  organized 
society  must  deal  with  the  organized  social  in- 
stitution— the  liquor  trade. 

Whether  this  institution  is  for  the  good  of 
the  public  or  not  depends  upon  its  results  upon 
society  as  a  whole.  These  in  turn  should  de- 
termine the  attitude  of  government,  society 
organized  for  public  defense  and  welfare.  The 
answer  of  these  two  questions  is  the  purpose 
of  this  course  of  studies. 


References  and  Authorities. 

Intemperance  a  Race  Characteristic. 

Martyn,    "Christian   Citizenship,"   90-94. 

Lecky,  "England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  Vol. 

I,  516-521. 
Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 

20-31. 
Henderson,  "Social  Spirit  in  America,"  281-282. 
Statistical  Abstract  of  the  U.  S.  for  1906,  530. 
Brinton,  "The  Basis  of  Social   Relations,"  99. 
The  Origin  of  the  Saloon  and  Club. 

Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 

20-31. 
Lecky,    "England    in   the    i8th    Century,"    Vol.    I, 

516-521. 
Eddy,  "Alcohol  in  History,"  157-176. 
Calkins,     substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  45-46. 
Early  Drinking  Customs  in  the  United  States. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  19-51. 
Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 

32-53- 
Eddy,  "Alcohol  in  History,"   176-207. 
23 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  Problem  Today:  What  is  It? 

Barker,    "The    Saloon    Problem   and    Social   Re- 
form," 1-3. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  139-218 ; 
also  see  outline  of  book,  11-15. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem." 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem and  Social  Reform,"  1-78. 
The  Traffic  a  Social  Institution. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"   11-27. 

Martyn,  "Christian  Citizenship,"  90-94- 

Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 
20-31. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  124-125. 

Barker,    "The    Saloon    Problem    and    Social    Re- 
form," 1-3. 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  1-24. 


24 


CHAPTER  II. 

SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL 

The    Liquor    Evil;    One  of    Consequences. 

— Everyone  acknowledges  that  there  are  ser- 
ious evils  connected  with  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors  and  the  traffic  which  supplies 
that  use.  It  is  not  denied  even  by  those  who 
believe  most  fully  in  the  unlimited  right  of 
every  man  to  drink  and  in  the  right  of  the 
institution  to  continue  and  the  business  to 
flourish.  To  understand  the  question  broad- 
ly and  honestly,  as  well  as  to  be  able  to  see 
clearly  the  best  methods  of  solving  the  ques- 
tion and  the  principles  involved  in  any  lasting 
solution,  it  must  be  determined,  first  of  all, 
wherein  the  evil  lies.  By  what  standard  may 
the  public  custom  and  the  private  habit  in  the 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors  be  judged?  How 
are  we  to  determine  whether  the  saloon  is  good 
or  bad  ?  Is  it  wrong  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case  to  sell  or  use  intoxicants  or  for  some  re- 
sulting effect? 

I.  There  are  those  who  maintain  that  it  is 
essentially  wrong  to  drink  a  glass  of  liquor,  a 
sin  per  se.  To  them  it  is  wrong  whether  there 
are  any  particular  evil  consequences  or  not. 
It  is  compared  with  stealing  or  defrauding; 
always  wrong  wherever  they  occur  and  with- 
out regard  to  anyone  other  than  the  agent 
S5 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

himself.  To  cheat  a  neighbor  is  wrong  be- 
cause of  the  inherent  nature  of  the  act  itself; 
it  is  a  matter  of  the  heart,  of  the  motive.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  that  neighbor  is 
able  to  sustain  the  loss  or  not. 

This  principle  is  hardly  applicable  to  the 
drinking  of  liquors.  It  is  not  essentially  bad 
to  drink  a  glass  of  beer.  It  is  not,  necessarily, 
a  sin  in  itself.  It  may  be  wrong,  but  if  so,  it 
is  because  of  its  results.  If  liquor  were  as 
harmless  as  water  there  would  be  no  more  sin 
in  drinking  the  one  than  in  drinking  the  other. 
Merely  to  drink  a  glass  of  wine  does  not  indi- 
cate a  conscious  rebellion  against  right. 

2.  But  in  all  acts  there  comes  in  the  ques- 
tion of  consequences.  This  is  especially  true 
of  such  as  involve  results  which  affect  others. 
Is  it  right  or  wrong  to  drink  intoxicants  if  by 
so  doing  health  is  injured  and  mental  power 
weakened  or  made  inactive?  Undoubtedly  it 
is  wrong.  If  society  must  bear  the  burdens 
resulting  from  this  self  injury  there  arises  a 
social  wrong.  It  would  be  equally  wrong  to 
use  cold  water  if  the  consequences  upon  the 
individual  ;ind  his  friends  were  equally  evil, 
and  for  the  same  reason. 

The  liquor  trade  is  but  the  means  for  sup- 
plying drink.  If  the  use  of  liquor  is  to  be 
judged  as  good  or  bad.  according  to  its  conse- 
quences, tbe  trade  must  be  judged  by  the  same 
rule ;  by  the  way  it  affects  society,  bringing 
peace,  hapjnness  and  prosperity,  or  causing 
crime,  disorder  and  social  corruption  must  it 
stand  or  fall, 

26 


SOURCES  OP  THE  LIQUOR  0V1L. 

The  consequences  of  the  liquor  traffic  are 
both  private  and  public.  They  fall,  first,  upon 
the  man  who  drinks ;  second,  upon  his  immedi- 
ate family  directly  dependent  upon  him,  and 
third,  upon  society  as  a  whole,  which  must  hi 
the  end  bear  the  burden  of  his  inefficiency,  if 
he  becomes  inefficient,  support  his  family  when 
he  cannot  longer  do  so,  and  punish  him  for 
the  crimes  committed  while  under  the  influ- 
ence of  drink. 

Its  social  consequences  is  fke  criterion  by 
which  the  liquor  traffic  is  to  he  judged 

The  Sources. — There  are  four  primary 
sources  to  the  liquor  problem  based  upon 
fundamental  traits  iw  human  nature  and  social 
organization.  These  are,  first,  the  desire  for 
stimulants  and  the  appetite  for  intoxicating 
liquors ;  second,  economic  gain ;  third,  social 
custom,  and  fourth,  government  sanction.  All 
these  operate  to  make  it  what  it  is  today.  It 
rests  upon  these  four  supports.  The  relative 
amount  that  each  contributes  is  not  deter- 
mined; probably  never  can  be  more  than  aj>- 
proximated.  The  practical  point  is  that  each 
has  an  important  bearing  upon  tlie  final  solu- 
tion of  the  question,  and  all  must  be  consid- 
ered as  important  factors  in  dealing  with  it. 

THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL— The  desire  for 
stimulants,  when  gratified  by  the  use  of  in- 
toxicating liquors,  grows  into  an  appetite 
which  becomes  stronger  and  stronger  as  the 
use  of  the  liquors  is  repeated.  The  crav- 
ing in  the  first  place  sometimes  comes  from 
diseased  physical  condition  or  inherited  ten- 
87 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

dencies  or  from  abnormal  social  surroundings. 
No  matter  what  may  have  given  it  the  first 
start  the  liquor  appetite,  when  once  estab- 
lished, tends  to  increase  gradually,  becoming 
master  of  its  victim,  and  ending  with  complete 
destruction  of  physical  and  mental  power  and 
spiritual  aspiration.  In  some  men  the  habit 
never  becomes  very  strong,  but  in  by  far  the 
largest  majority  it  does  become  master, 
whether  they  are  willing  to  acknowledge  it 
or  not.  Taken  together,  the  craving  for  stim- 
ulants and  the  appetite  for  alcohol,  when  once 
created,  constitute  one  of  the  most  powerful 
causes  of  the  liquor  trade. 

THE  ECONOMIC— The  liquor  business, 
as  any  other  business,  is  run  for  the  money 
there  is  in  it.  It  is  very  profitable,  giving 
large  returns  for  comparatively  small  invest- 
ments. The  capital  devoted  to  manufatcure 
goes  chefl}'  into  fixed  property.  The  expense 
of  production,  compared  with  other  factory 
products,  is  quite  light,  since  the  number  of 
laborers  employed,  usually  the  largest  item 
of  expense,  is  smaller  than  in  any  other  of 
the  great  industries.  In  the  retail  trade,  op- 
portunity is  given  for  the  employment  of  a 
large  number  of  men  and  these  are  well  or- 
ganized for  the  protection  and  advancement 
of  their  business.  The  saloonkeeper  usually 
makes  moiicy  rapidly.  A  market  is  furnished 
for  a  small  amount  of  grain  and  fruit,  and  thus 
the  farmer  becomes  involved  among  those  re- 
ceiving financial  gain  from  the  trade,  while 
the  government  takes  an  unusually  high  tax 
28 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

or  license  fee  from  the  finislied  product  and 
its  sale  and  so  shares  in  its  dividends.  Mod- 
ern methods  of  capitalization  and  monopoly 
have  unified  the  business  and  made  it  ex- 
ceedingly powerful,  while  modern  advertising 
has  been  exhausted  to  increase  its  extent  and 
fasten  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  upon 
the  public  as  a  permanent  social  custom. 

THE  SOCIAL. — One  powerful  source  of 
the  liquor  evil,  frequently  overlooked  or  min- 
imized by  temperance  workers,  is  the  wide- 
spread custom  of  their  use  as  a  means  to 
sociability  and  social  enjoyment.  The  use  of 
liquors  in  clubs  and  at  banquets,  in  business 
as  a  means  of  interesting  prospective  pur- 
chasers, in  every-day  life,  as  an  expression 
of  good  fellowship  and  in  many  similar  ways 
has  created  a  strong  demand  for  them.  This 
is  an  important  source  of  the  trade  and  its 
power.  Without  regard  to  whether  this  means 
to  social  friendship  might  not  readily  be  sub- 
stituted by  any  one  of  many  others  which  do 
not  have  the  inherent  evils  of  alcoholic  drinks 
the  fact  remains  that  at  present  this  is  a  prom- 
inent feature  of  the  question.  The  saloon 
is  the  chief  representative  of  this  social  phase ; 
it  is  a  place  where  men  come  together  for  va- 
rious reasons,  among  them  that  of  meeting 
other  men  and  being  in  their  company.  It 
has  frequently  been  called  "the  poor  man's 
club,"  and,  in  large  cities,  there  is  good  rea- 
son for  the  application  of  this  name. 

THE  POLITICAL.— One  great  source  of 
the  liquor  traffic  as  it  actually  exists  to-day, 
29 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

a  public  social  institution  is  very  often  over- 
looked entirely  by  students  of  the  problem. 
That  is  government  sanction.  It  is  true  that 
this  is  not  one  of  the  fundamental  traits  of 
human  nature,  such  as  the  desire  for  stimu- 
lants, economic  gain  or  social  enjoyment,  to 
which  strong  drink  administers.  But  it  is  a 
direct  source  of  power  to  the  liquor  traffic  as 
a  social  and  practical  question  and  so  nec- 
essarily involved  in  a  discussion  of  it.  In- 
directly, also,  it  adds  to  the  force  of  private 
greed  and  social  custom  in  causing  intem- 
perance. //  «•  tlie  most  unexcusablc  of  all  the 
sources  of  the  liquor  trade  and  its  evil  con- 
sequences. 

By  governnaent  sanction  is  meant  the  so- 
cial prestige  asid  political  influence  given  the 
trade  by  the  laying  upon  it  of  special  revenue 
taxes  and  license.  From  the  strictly  legal  point 
of  view,  license  is  not  intended  to  give  any 
privileges  which  the  business  would  not  pos- 
sess if  running  as  free  as  any  other  trade. 
Legally  it  gives  it  the  same  standing  as  any 
other  business.  But  the  practical  social  effect 
is  to  give  it  unusual  power  and  sanction.  This 
is  true  bolil  to  the  public  and  to  the  men  en- 
gaged in  Uie  business.  The  legal  aim  is  lost 
in  the  wider  social  principle  that  the  interest 
which  contributes  most  largely  in  taxation  de- 
mands most  in  government  protection.  The 
liquor  dealer  takes  additional  liberties  and 
assumes  rights  which,  strictly  speaking,  he 
does  not  have,  but  against  which  the  public  is 
unable  to  protect  itself  so  long  as  the  license 

80 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

policy  remains.  The  fact  that  one-fourth  of 
the  entire  national  income  is  from  such  reve- 
nues, makes  it  inevitable  that  there  should  be 
close  relations  between  the  government  and 
the  trade  which  yields  this  immense  tax.  This 
is  the  secret  of  saloon  power  in  politics. 

The  Relation   of   the   Trade   to   the   Habit. 

— It  is  a  prevailing  opinion  that  there  are  two 
distinct  liquor  problems,  the  "drink  habit"  and 
"the  drink  traffic,"  the  latter  merely  admin- 
istering to  and  supplying  the  former.  Rather, 
these  are  two  phases,  or  opposite  views,  of  the 
same  problem,  acting  and  reacting  on  each 
other  mutually  as  cause  and  effect. 

Under  ordinary  economic  law  demand 
creates  supply ;  the  need  for  an  article,  its 
habitual  use  or  the  customs  calling  for  its 
consumption,  lead  to  the  production  of  that 
article  in  sufficient  quantities  to  supply  the 
need.  With  every-day  necessities  and  even 
conveniences  this  rule  is  all  there  is  to  it.  But 
with  luxuries  the  tendency  to  create  demand, 
where  there  is  none  normally,  and  to  extend 
it  to  an  almost  unlimited  degree  begins. 

With  narcotic  drugs,  such  as  opium,  alcohol. 
tobacco,  cocaine,  which  have  a  natural  tenden- 
cy when  used  more  than  very  rarely,  to  create 
an  increasing  demand  for  themselves,  the  or- 
dinary operation  of  this  rule  of  political  econ- 
omy is  yet  more  distorted.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  normal  appetite  for  narcotics  in 
health ;  it  must  first  be  created.  The  fact  that 
the  first  taste  is  usually  disagreeable  is  nature's 
protest  against  the  introduction  of  a  danger. 

31 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  growing  demand  is  new  and  abnormal. 
Liquor  men  have  so  well  recognized  this  that 
in  state  conventions  they  have  declared  that 
nickels  spent  in  treats  to  boys  is  missionary 
work  that  will  return  its  hundreds  of  dollars 
later  on  the  investment.  Small  bottles  have 
been  distributed  free  among  boys  in  the  public 
schools  or  orders  handed  them  reading  "Give 

Bearer Glasses  of   Beer,"  and  signed 

by  a  brewing  company  desiring  to  create  a 
future  market  for  its  wares  among  these  young 
American  citizens. 

There  is  doubtless  a  call  for  alcoholic 
drinks  based  upon  the  usual  laws  of  supply 
and  demand  totally  irrespective  of  their  more 
or  less  harmful  effects.  Social  custom  has 
demands  for  their  use  as  an  expression  of 
friendship,  and  as  a  means  of  recreation,  in 
beer  gardens,  in  the  "social  center"  saloon  or 
the  "poor  man's"  club,  the  banquet  hall,  in 
business  and  even  in  the  homes  of  certain 
classes  of  people.  But  beyond  this  ordinary 
use  as  a  supposed  necessity,  or  luxury,  com- 
paratively small  in  actual  amount,  is  the 
created  demand,  the  usual  law  of  economics 
working  backward,  and  the  agents  creating 
that  supply,  brewer,  distiller  and  saloon-keep- 
er, voluntarily  establishing  an  entirely  new, 
artificial  and  vicious  call  for  their  goods. 
Habit  and  trade  becoming  mutually  cause 
and  effect  a  vicious  circle  is  established  that 
leads  to  drunken  excess.  The  increase  in  the 
per  capita  consumption  of  liquors  in  the  United 
States  from  6.43  gallons  in  i860,  just  before 
the  organization  of  the  trade  and  its  political 

32 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

power  began,  to  22.27  gallons  in  1906  must 
be  largely  due  to  this  artificial  stimulation  of 
the  demand. 

If  the  ordinary  laws  of  demand  and  supply 
had  operated  alone  during  these  46  years  the 
only  increase  would  have  been  the  influence 
of  the  large  foreign  immigration  during  the 
period  bringing  in  heavier  drinking  habits.  But 
this  would  have  been  more  than  counteracted 
by  the  tremendous  temperance  agitation, 
pledge-signing  crusades  and  temperance  in- 
struction in  the  public  schools  of  almost  all  the 
states  and  territories. 

It  is  no  exaggeration,  therefore,  to  say  that 
the  activities  of  the  liquor  trade,  in  creating 
the  habit,  is  responsible  for  the  347  per  cent 
increase  in  drinking  during  the  last  46  years. 
This  reversal  of  economic  law  makes  the  trade 
itself  a  powerful  secondary  source  of  the  whole 
American  liquor  problem.  As  Dr.  Crane  puts 
it: 

"The  licensed  liquor  traffic  is  here  in  viola- 
tion of  the  economic  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  It  confesses  this  when  it  pays  ex- 
horbitant  license  fees,  and  we  are  impressed 
by  the  same  fact  when  we  remember  that  most 
of  our  trouble  comes  from  the  supply  and 
not  the  demand.  The  seller  is  the  one  who  is 
a  political  power — who  is  a  lawbreaker  and 
who  is  the  pusher  of  the  business.  There  is 
a  demand,  but  it  is  created  by  the  supply.  The 
demand  is  artificial  and  is  better  denied  than 
supplied." 

"The  great  central  power  in  the  liquor  busi- 
ness in  America  is  the  brewery... .They  have 
83 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

a  distinct  policy: — if  there  are  not  as  many 
saloons  as  there  can  be,  supply  them.  This 
is  what  has  been  done  in  Chicago.  Fully  nine- 
ty per  cent  of  the  Chicago  saloons  are  under 
some  obligation  to  the  brewery ;  with  at  least 
eighty  per  cent,  this  obligation  is  a  serious  one, 
"The  brewers  employ  special  agents  to  watch 
continually  every  nook  and  cranny  in  Chicago 
where  it  may  be  possible  to  pour  in  a  little 
more  beer.. ..If  a  new  colony  of  foreigners  ap- 
pears, some  compatriot  is  set  at  once  to  selling 
them  liquor.  Greeks,  Lithunians,  Poles — all 
the  rough  and  hairy  tribes  which  have  been 
drawn  to  Chicago, — have  their  trade  exploited 
to  the  utmost.  Up  to  last  year,  no  man  with 
two  hundred  dollars,  who  was  not  subject  to 
arrest  on  sight,  need  go  without  a  saloon  in 
Chicago;  nor,  for  that  matter,  need  he  now. 
The  machinery  is  constantly  waiting  for  him. 
With  that  two  hundred  dollars  as  a  margin,  the 
brewery  sorts  out  a  set  from  its  stock  of  fix- 
tures, pays  his  rent,  pays  his  license,  and  sup- 
plies him  the  beer.  He  pays  for  everything  in 
an  extra  price  on  each  barrel  of  beer.  The 
other  supplies  of  his  saloon, — liquor  and  cigars, 
— are  bought  out  of  his  two  hundred  dollars 
cash  capital.  Under  this  system  of  forcing, 
Chicago  has  four  times  as  many  saloons  as  it 
should  have  from  any  standpoint  whatever, 
except,  of  course,  the  brewers'  and  the  whole- 
salers'...There  is  now  one  retail  dealer  to  every 
two  hundred  and  eighty-five  people ;... .every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  Chicago  drank,  in 
1906,  two  and  one-quarter  barrels  of  beer — 
three  and  one-half  times  the  average  consump- 
34 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

tion  in  the  United  States.  Each  also  drank 
about  four  gallons  of  spirituous  liquor — two 
and  one-third  times  the  average.  The  main 
object  of  the  brewing  business,  the  thorough 
saturation  of  the  city,  especially  the  tenement 
districts,  with  alcoholic  liquors,  is  well  ful- 
filled." '  The  retail  dealers  are  so  bound 
by  contract  to  the  brewer  who  started  them  in 
business  that  they  can  not  quit,  even  should 
they  want  to  do  so,  without  incurring  heavy 
damages.  They  dare  not  buy  from  another 
but  are  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  firm  that 
started  their  "place." 

Brewery  ownership  and  control  of  saloons 
is  responsible  for  the  starting  of  many  in  resi- 
dence sections,  new  parts  of  a  town,  or  in 
temperate  communities  where  as  yet  there  are 
few  drinkers,  when  it  is  not  prevented  by  law. 
A  poor  man  is  set  up  in  business,  he  is  paid 
a  salary,  furnished  fixtures  and  beer  and  goes 
to  work  to  create  a  drinking  constituency  for 
himself.  The  big  liquor  firm  can  support  such 
"missionary"  effort  when  the  private  dealer 
could  not.  The  rivalry  among  the  different 
brewing  firms  accounts  largely  for  the  solid 
lines  of  saloons,  five,  six  or  seven  long,  in  some 
of  our  large  cities.  Many  a  man  who  would 
resist  the  inducements  of  a  single  saloon  has 
not  will-power  sufficient  to  pass  a  whole  line 
of  shops  where  he  sees  attractive  games  going 
on  within. 

The  side  attractions  of  the  saloon,  its  re- 
ports of  the  ball-games,  prize  fights,  free  lunch, 
music,  games  and  free-for-all  conversation  are 
intended  simply  to  increase  the  sale  of  liquor. 

85 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

They  are  designed  to  create  the  demand  in 
those  who  do  not  care  for  intoxicants  and  to 
draw  the  man  with  "the  habit"  within  the 
range  where  his  craving  will  lead  him  to  spend 
all  his  earnings.  "The  public  saloon  and  saloon 
system  is  a  vast  organized  inciter  of  human 
appetite." "  If  it  existed  merely  to  supply 
some  inborn  desire  there  would  be  no  need  for 
such  expensive  attractions. 

The  Welfare  of  Society  as  a  Whole. — 
The  first  duty  of  government  is  to  provide 
for  public  safety.  It  must  protect  the  indi- 
vidual in  his  private  rights,  guard  against 
crime  and  preserve  order  at  all  times.  When- 
ever any  individual  exceeds  his  private  rights 
by  interfering  with  the  enjoyment  of  the  same 
rights  by  others  he  must  be  restrained  or  pun- 
ished. A  business  or  trade  which  is  dangerous 
to  the  public  welfare  must  be  suppressed.  This 
power  of  the  state  is  known  as  the  police 
power.  It  is  fundamental  and  must  be  exer- 
cised whether  the  government  does  anything 
else  or  not. 

All  trade  is  essentially  social  in  its  nature, 
depending  for  its  protection  and  sanction  upon 
government  and  so  coming  very  directly  under 
it  as  to  its  regulation  and  control.  John 
Stuart  Mill  says,  "Trade  is  a  social  act. 
Whoever  undertakes  to  sell  any  description  of 
goods  to  the  public  does  what  affects  the  in- 
terests of  other  persons  and  of  society  in  gen- 
eral and  thus  his  conduct,  in  principle,  comes 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  society."  It  is  in 
this  capacity  that  the  government  passes  laws 
36 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

restricting,  regulating  or  prohibiting  the  liquor 
traffic. 

The  only  rational  basis  for  legislation 
against  the  liquor  traffic  is  social  welfare.  It 
is  not  the  province  of  government  to  make 
men  good  by  law  even  if  it  were  possible 
to  do  so.  It  is,  no  doubt,  its  duty  to  remove 
undue  and  unnecessary  temptation  to  do 
wrong,  and,  as  Gladstone  said,  to  make  it  as 
"easy  to  do  right  and  hard  to  do  wrong" 
as  possible.  But  the  true  purpose  of  such 
laws  is  not  reform  of  moral  conduct.  It  is 
not  the  promotion  of  personal  temperance  on 
the  one  hand,  or  the  restriction  of  personal 
liberty  on  the  other.  If  temperance  is  pro- 
moted, as  it  undoubtedly  is  by  prohibitory 
laws,  it  is  a  secondary  result,  no  matter  how 
desirable  in  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
personal  freedom  either  of  the  would-be  liquor 
dealer  or  drinker  is  restricted,  this,  too,  is 
contingent  and  while  not  at  all  desirable  in 
itself,  is  unavoidable  and  no  valid  objection 
against  the  exercise  of  government  powers 
in  this  respect.  The  true  purpose  is  the  pro- 
tection of  society  as  a  whole.  This  furnishes 
a  sound  ethical  basis  in  political  science  for 
restrictions  upon  the  traffic  extending  through 
any  degree  of  severity  to  total  prohibition. 

"If  drinking  at  the  dram-shop  is  inimical 
to  social  safety,  it  may  properly  be  made  the 
object  of  legislative  attack.  If  private  drink- 
ing is  poisonous  to  the  system,  and  by  the 
influence  of  heredity  corrupting  to  the  whole 
body  politic,  the  strong  arm  of  the  law  may 
87 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

rightly  put  a  stop  to  it.  It  is  not  because 
drunkenness  is  a  sin,  but  because  it  endangers 
the  community  that  the  state  takes  cognizance 
of  it.  The  only  sound  doctrine,  therefore,  on 
which  prohibitory  law  can  be  founded  is  that 
the  state,  in  the  exercise  of  its  police  powers, 
has  the  right  to  suppress  the  liquor  traffic  as  a 
social  evil,  and  that  its  suppression  is  expe- 
dient in  the  interests  of  national  well  being." 
Conflict  between  public  welfare  and  private 
interest  comes  in  three  ways : 

1.  Injury  or  destruction  of  the  property 
of  the  liquor  dealer.  Legally  it  has  long  been 
decided  that  there  are  no  vested  rights  in 
property  when  its  use  becomes  offensive  to 
public  safety  or  welfare. 

2.  Interference  with  the  freedom  of  the 
drinker  to  procure  the  gratification  of  his 
appetite  or  to  use  his  accustomed  means  for 
social  enjoyment.  Wise  legislation  does  not 
or  will  not  interfere  with  these  further  than 
absolutely  neessary  to  protect  the  public. 
But  when  that  conflict  does  arise  the  general 
welfare  requires  the  surrender  of  the  private 
privileges.  No  man  has  liberties  which  inter- 
fere with  the  enjoyment  of  equal  privileges  by 
others.  And  no  man  may  inflict  upon  society, 
unrestricted,  the  results  of  his  own  self- 
injury. 

3.  Even  the  moderate,  self-controlled 
drinker  may  be  compelled  to  surrender  the 
privilege  which  he  does  not  abuse  on  account 
of  the  serious  danger  to  society  resulting  from 
the  general  prevalence  of  intemperance  and 

ss 


SOURCES  OF  THE  LIQUOR  EVIL. 

the  activity  of  the  saloon  and  the  liquor 
traffic. 

"The  Social  Demands."— Summarizing  in- 
temperance is  generally  known  as  a  wide- 
spread, serious  and  deeply-rooted  vice  with 
consequences  which  are  both  individual  and 
social.  The  drink  trade  is  a  public  social  insti- 
tution which,  in  addition  to  supplying  alco- 
holic liquors  for  a  normal  economic  demand  to 
those  who  do  not  go  to  excess,  administers  to 
the  vice  of  intemperance  and  numerous  attend- 
ant evils,  by  supplying  the  necessary  means. 

While  private  individuals  and  public  philan- 
thropy are  endeavoring  to  cure  the  personal 
and  social  evils  by  every  known  method  of 
amelioration,  what  shall  be  the  attitude  of 
organized  society,  government,  toward  the 
whole  liquor  problem  ?  A  complete  answer  will 
depend  upon  the  following  fundamental  facts: 

(i)  The  effects  of  the  use  of  liquors,  and 
of  the  liquor  trade,  upon  society  as  a  whole; 
as  the  sociologists  say,  upon  the  ends  of  social 
welfare,  public  health,  wealth,  knowledge,  so- 
ciability, beauty  and  Tightness;  or  upon  what 
common  law  recognizes  as  the  object  of  the 
police  power  of  the  state,  the  public  health, 
wealth,  morals  and  safety. 

(2)  Whether  the  evils  are  contingent 
and  capable  of  being  remedied  by  regulation 
and  control,  or  whether  they  are  inherent  and 
shall  require,  in  addition  to  temperance  meth- 
ods, that  the  trade  shall  be  banished  in  order 
to  free  society  from  the  burdens  resulting 
from  the  habit  and  the  political  and  social  vice 
traceable  to  it. 

80 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

References  and  Authorities. 

The  Liquor  Evil ;  One  of  Consequences. 

Wheeler,    "Prohibition,"    26-29,    ?)^-37- 

Pitman,  "Alcohol  and  the  State,"  1 10-129. 

"The  Ethics  of  Prohibition,"  International  Journal 

of  Ethics,  Vol.  IX,  350-359. 
Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem,"  137- 
142. 
The  Sources. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  139-171. 
Cyclopedia  of  Temperance  and   Prohibition,  360- 

362. 
Calkins,  "Substitute  for  the  Saloon,"  1-24. 
Stevens,  "Prohibition  in  Kansas,"  126-129. 
The  Relation  of  the  Trade  to  the  Habit. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  172-177, 

299-303. 
Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

5-7. 
Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago;  A   Study  of  the 

Great  Immoralities,"  McClure's,  April,  1907. 
Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  43-46. 
Ely,  "Political  Economy,"  154-159. 
'  Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's,  April, 

1907. 
^  Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  302. 
The  Welfare  of  Society  as  a  Whole. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  7-27,  36-37,   56. 

"The  Ethics  of  Prohibition,"  International  Journal 

of  Ethics,  IX,  350. 
Lilly,  "The  Saloon  Before  the  Courts." 
Bascom,   "Sociolog^y,"   194-202. 


40 


CHAPTER  III. 

ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH  :  THE 
PHYSIOLOGICAL  PROBLEM. 

The  Attractiveness  of   Alcohol.  —  Mankind 

enjoys  drinking  alcoholic  liquors.  He  has 
done  so  for  thousands  of  years,  ever  since  he 
discovered  the  art  of  agriculture  and  entered 
upon  the  cultivation  of  barley  and  grapes. 
Almost  every  sort  of  fruit  or  grain  or  vege- 
table substance  has  been  made  to  produce  some 
variety  of  fiery  drink,  as  has,  also,  honey,  the 
sap  of  trees  and  even  meats.  Nearly  all  races 
of  savages,  from  the  natives  of  America  to  the 
blacks  of  Central  Africa,  have  discovered  some 
kind  of  intoxicant  and  devised  a  way  to  make 
it.  But  it  was  not  until  civilization  was  fully 
grown  that  drunkenness  became  systematic  and 
its  evils  a  far-reaching  danger  to  social  wel- 
fare. Crude  methods  of  distillation  always 
limited  the  supply  among  savages  while  their 
out-door  life  enabled  them  to  throw  off  the 
effects  more  rapidly. 

Long  before  there  was  any  such  thing  as  a 
saloon  or  "poor  man's  club,"  long  before 
liquors  were  used  at  social  gatherings  and  be- 
fore there  was  a  "liquor  trade,"  intoxicants 
were  made  and  drunk  because  there  was  some- 
thing in  them  that  people  wanted.  Alcohol, 
for  centuries,  has  served  as  a  means  of  gratify- 
41 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

ing  a  certain  physical  craving  for  stimulants. 
There  must  be  a  physiological  explanation 
underlying  this  fact  whether  there  is  an  equally 
scientific  justification  for  it,  or  not.' 

Throughout  all  history  mankind  has  han- 
kered after  some  exciting  agent  to  make  him 
feel  good  and  to  enable  him  to  forget  his  aches 
and  pains.  He  cries  out  for  some  means  of  es- 
cape from  mental  suffering,  sorrow  and  trou- 
ble. And  he  does  not  hesitate  to  use  external 
intoxicating  agents  when  they  will  serve  this 
end.  The  craving  for  stimulants  seems  to  be 
inborn,  instinctive,  but  the  specific  craving  for 
alcohol  is  acquired.  Nature  demands  excite- 
ment of  a  more  healthy  kind ;  man  has  used 
alcohol  because  it  happened  to  be  near  at  hand 
and  it,  in  turn,  has  created  a  growing  and 
abnormal  craving  for  itself.  If  he  had  never 
learned  the  efifects  of  alcohol  he  would  have 
no  desire  for  it. 

The  p]i)'siological  action  of  alcohol  is  such 
that  it  furnishes  quick  relief  to  mental  suffer- 
ing. It  stirs  the  emotions  and  fires  the  imagi- 
nations. It  does  not  matter  that  the  relief  is 
but  temporary.  Ever  since  its  discovery  alco- 
hol has  been  used  as  a  short  cut  to  short-lived 
happiness.  No  one  can  see  a  tipsy  man  with- 
out noticir.g  his  jovial  freedom  from  care,  his 
return  to  almost  primitive  enjoyment.  He  is, 
for  the  time  being,  although  doubtless  disgust- 
ingly so,  perfectly  happy. 

"Clearly,  then,  the  essential  factor  in  the 
attractiveness  of  alcoholic  drinks  is  their  power 
to  intoxicate  and  narcotize,  a  conclusion  which 
is  further  suggested  by  the  fact  that  mankind 

42 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

shows  a  disposition  to  indulge  in  a  variety  of 
intoxicant  and  narcotic  substances  (such  as 
opium,  hasheesh)  which  have  nothing  but  their 
drug  effects  to  recommend  them."  ' 

Occasionally  people  drink  liquors  to  allay 
thirst  of  a  perfectly  normal  kind ;  sometimes 
because  of  the  agreeable  taste  and  frequently 
because  of  ill-health.  But  these  attractions 
are  but  secondary.  Many  drinks  as  now  com- 
bined may  be  very  good  to  the  taste  but  this 
is  not  the  essential  factor.  The  taste  of  beer, 
the  most  widely  used  of  all,  is  not  agreeable  to 
most  people  but,  like  the  crude  drinks  of  very 
early  days,  seems  to  attract,  not  because  of, 
but  in  spite  of  its  unpalatableness.  Again, 
while  many  malt  liquors  and  wines  contain  a 
large  amount  of  water  and  a  relatively  low 
percent  of  alcohol,  no  one  imagines  for  a  mo- 
ment that  their  every  day  use  is  for  the  pur- 
pose of  quenching  any  other  than  the  peculiar 
alcoholic  thirst.  Men  use  alcoholic  drinks  be- 
cause of  their  effects  upon  the  mental  and 
emotional  faculties.*  It  is  intoxication  which 
they  are  after  and  which  they  get. 

The  Source  of  Intoxication. — The  variety 
of  alcoholic  drinks  in  common  use  is  very  large 
but  the  characteristic  ingredient  of  all  of  them 
is  the  same,  ethyl  alcohol.  It  is  always  pro- 
duced by  the  fermentation  of  starch  or  sugar. 
Alcoholic  liquors  may  be  divided  into  four 
classes :  ( i )  malt  liquors,  used  in  largest  quan- 
tities ;  (2)  wines;  (3)  distilled  liquors ;  (4) 
unusual  alcoholic  preparations,  such  as  those 
sold  popularly  as  "medicines,"  "tonics,"  "nerve 
stimulants,"  "bitters,"  "celery  compound,"  etc., 
43 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM, 

often  containing  a  very  high  percent  of  alcohol, 
and  those  with  a  low  i)ercent,  such  as  root 
beer  and  koumiss,  the  latter  being-  made  from 
milk. 

The  actual  amount  of  alcohol  in  different 
drinks  varies  greatly,  and  in  the  same  drink 
to  a  considerable  extent.  A  fair  average,  by 
weight,  of  the  amount  in  some  of  the  most 
common  is  as  follows :  Beer  varies  from  i  to 
7  percent,  the  average  in  American  beers  being 
about  4.4  percent  alcohol ;  ale  and  porter  about 
5  percent.  Among  the  wines  French  clarets 
contain  8  percent,  French  white  wines  10.3 
percent,  sherry  17.5,  Maderia  15.4,  champagne, 
10,  American  red  wine  9,  sweet  catawba  12. 
The  distilleil  liquors  contain  the  highest 
amounts,  American  best  whiskey  being  about 
43  percent  alcohol,  American  common  35, 
Scotch  and  Irish  40,  rum  60,  gin  30  and  ab- 
sinthe 51.  Alany  popularly  advertised  "pat- 
ent" medicines  are  little  else  than  alcoholic 
liquors  with  various  flavors  and  some  medi- 
cinal additions.  They  are  used,  often  innocent- 
ly, for  the  same  stimulating  effect  that  attracts 
the  ordinary  drinker  of  whiskey  to  the  saloon. 
An  analysis  of  some  of  these  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Board  of  Health  shows  how 
very  large  is  the  amount  of  alcohol  they  con- 
tain. Boker's  Stomach  Bitters  was  found  to 
be  42.6  percent  alcohol ;  Parker's  Tonic,  "pure- 
ly vegetable,"  recommended  for  inebriates, 
41.6;  Green's  Nervua  16.1 ;  Hostetter's  Stom- 
ach Bitters  44.3 ;  Paine's  Celery  Compound 
21;  Avar's  Sarsaparilla  26.5;  Hood's  18.8; 
Brown's  13.5;  Peruna  28.59.  The  dose  rec- 
44 


ALCOHOL  AND   PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

ommended  upon  the  labels  varied  from  a  tea- 
spoon full  to  a  wine  glass  full  and,  in  fre- 
quency, from  one  to  four  times  a  day  "increas- 
ing as  needed,"  which  means,  as  the  craving 
for  intoxicants  grows  in  intensity.  Peruna  is 
so  much  of  an  intoxicant  that  its  sale  is  for- 
bidden by  the  government  to  the  Indians  on 
the  same  ground  that  the  sale  of  whiskey  is 
prohibited. 

The  more  highly  flavored  wines  contain 
stimulating  ethers  as  well  as  alcohol ;  their 
intoxicating  action  is  even  greater  than  that 
of  alcohol  alone.  All  of  the  common  drinks 
are  intoxicating,  the  degree  depending  pri- 
marily upon  the  total  amount  of  alcohol  taken 
in  successive  draughts.  The  term  intoxication 
is  in  itself  significant.  It  is  derived  from  a 
word  meaning  poison  and  implies  that  one 
intoxicated  is  suffering  from  the  effects  of 
poison.  It  is  exceedingly  important  to  know 
what  is  the  source  of  intoxication;  what  are 
the  constituents  of  alcoholic  beverages  that 
cause  it  and  the  serious  physiological  and  other 
evils  resulting  from  it. 

There  have  been  two  classes  of  investigators 
of  this  question.  First,  those  who  believed  that 
the  greatest  harm  comes  from  the  by-products 
of  distillation,  the  higher  alcohols,  flavoring  in- 
gredients created  in  manufacture  or  added 
afterward  and  from  adulterations.  A  great 
many  people  believe  that  if  "pure"  liquors 
only  were  made  and  sold  the  largest  part  of  the 
evils  of  alcoholism  would  be  prevented.  This 
opinion  is  widely  current  among  certain  classes 
of  people  and  it  is  assiduously  cultivated  by 

45 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

high-class  liquor  dealers  since  it  means  a 
diverting  of  temperance  sentiment  away  from 
their  business  and  applying  it  against  the  lower 
grade  dealers.  It  is  claimed  that  temperance 
will  be  best  advanced  by  the  passage  of  laws 
preventing  adulteration  and  encouraging  the 
production  of  the  so-called  pure  beverages. 

The  better  authority  among  scientific  in- 
vestigators of  the  subject  shows  that  it  is  not 
the  by-products,  but  the  chief  constituent,  of 
all  alcoholic  beverages,  the  essential  part,  ethyl 
alcohol  itself,  that  produces  intoxication  and 
nearly  all  of  the  other  evil  results.  In  quantity 
it  is  nearly  always  so  much  greater  than  all  the 
other  intoxicating  or  poisoning  constituents  put 
together  that  the  impurities  of  even  the  poorest 
grade  of  whiskies  are  insignificant  in  com- 
parison. While  they  do  produce  evils,  they 
occupy  a  very  secondary  role  as  a  cause  of 
alcoholism. 

Tables  have  been  prepared  showing  the  rela- 
tive intoxicating  and  life-destroying  effects  of 
the  various  constituents  of  the  usual  alcoholic 
beverages.  It  is  found  by  Dr.  John  J.  Abel 
that  one  liter  of  ordinary  rum  will  destroy 
64.947  kilograms  of  animal  life,  whether  dog 
or  man.  Of  this,  64.102  kilograms  is  due  to 
the  ethyl  alcohol  contained  therein,  .258  kilo- 
grams to  the  higher  alcohols  and  the  .587 
kilograms  remaining  to  the  by-products  and 
adulterations.*  "The  by-products  are  therefore 
of  only  secondary  importance  as  toxic  agents." 
Similar  tables  for  the  whiskies,  wines,  etc., 
would  show  similar  results — that  the  standard 


46 


ALCOHOL  AND   PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

alcohol  in  each  case  is  the  really  harmful  in- 
gredient. 

Alcoholism  and  all  its  train  of  evils  is  due, 
in  short,  not  so  much  to  impure  liquors  as  to 
"pure"  ones.  Occasionally  adulterations  are 
added  which  are  more  dangerous  than  ethyl 
alcohol,  but  far  more  frequently  they  are  com- 
paratively harmless  and  only  help  to  reduce 
the  strength  of  the  essential  intoxicant  of  all 
such  beverages,  alcohol.  It  must  be  noted  that 
the  chief  source  of  intoxication,  from  a  con- 
servative scientific  standpoint,  is  itself  the  chief 
constituent  of  all  liquors ;  it  is  therefore  in- 
herent. 

Is  Alcohol  a  Food  ? — The  question  wheth- 
er alcohol  is  a  food  or  not  has  received  intense 
discussion  among  chemists  and  physiologists 
during  the  past  few  years.  Neither  of  tiiese 
classes  of  scientists  have  been  able  to  settle 
it  even  yet.  From  neither  point  of  view  is 
there  a  general  understanding  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes a  food.  The  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween that  which  furnishes  nourishment  to 
the  body  in  the  ]icrformance  of  its  functions 
and  that  which  hinders  and  destroys,  tiiat  is 
between  food  and  poison,  is  very  indefinite  at 
best  and  may  well  be  left  with  these  scientific 
men  as  a  technical  question.  The  deadliest  of 
poisons  may  at  times  be  of  excellent  food 
value  while  every-day  foods  in  excess  or  in 
certain  diseases  are  no  better  than  poisons. 
Just  when  a  generally  recognized  poison  be- 
comes of  value  or  a  drink  or  food  specific  poi- 
son is  a  question  for  the  expert  knowledge  of 
a  physician  and  his  prescription,  and  not  for 
47 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

the  rank  and  file  of  every  day  society.  The 
real  question  for  people  generally  is  the  broad- 
er one,  is  alcohol  a  wholesome  or  practical, 
every-day  or  even  occasional  food?  How  do 
its  nutrient  qualities  compare  with  its  well- 
known  evil  consequences?  Will  it  take  the 
place  of  other  foods  in  health?  If  it  does  not 
do  this  it  may  be  a  medicine  but  it  is  not  a 
food. 

The  two  chief  functions  of  food  are  the 
building  and  repair  of  tissue  and  the  furnish- 
ing of  energy  for  work  and  heat.  The  essen- 
tial element  of  the  former  is  nitrogen,  fur- 
nished by  such  common  foods  as  bread  and 
meat.  Alcohol  is  certainly  not  a  food  in  this 
respect  as  it  contains  no  mineral  or  nitrogenous 
constituents.  No  one  claims  that  it  is  a  tissue- 
building  food. 

Under  the  other  class  are  those  which  serve 
as  fuel  by  the  combustion  of  which  the  heat 
of  the  body  is  maintained,  work-power  liber- 
ated and  the  body  tissues  preserved  from  be- 
ing themselves  used  up  as  fuel.  Those  who 
call  alcohol  a  food  do  so  because  it  is  in  large 
part  oxidized  in  the  body  and  liberates  energy 
and  heat.  Authorities  differ  as  to  just  how 
much  is  thus  consumed  and  how  much  is 
thrown  off  unused.  There  is  no  question  that 
warmth  is  produced  but  whether  the  force 
liberated  is  utilized  for  the  performance  of  a 
normal  function,  or  a  detrimental  one,  is  not 
yet  ascertained.  The  oxidizing  of  alcohol, 
when  in  the  tissues,  does  protect  them  from 
being  broken  down  as  rapidly,  as  shown  by 
the  accumulating  fat  of  the  beer-drinker,  but 
48 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

this  sort  of  protection  does  not  make  toward 
good  health  as  it  prevents  the  eHmination  of 
waste  cell  matter.  Further,  alcohol  is  not  held 
in  the  body  unconsumed  for  any  length  of  time 
for  further  use  as  are  fats  and  oils.  All  that 
is  not  used  soon  is  excreted  as  if  nature  re- 
garded it  as  an  intruder. 

While  difference  prevails  among  scientific 
authorities  as  to  how  far  the  oxidized  alcohol 
serves  a  useful  purpose  there  is  no  dispute  as 
to  its  poisonous  effects  in  anything  but  the 
most  moderate  doses.  All  recognize  its  ac- 
companying dangers  as  a  drug,  a  point  in 
which  it  differs  markedly  from  current  articles 
of  food.  The  evil  effects  so  over-balance  any 
possible  good  that  might  come  from  the  heat- 
producing  qualities  that  it  must  essentially  be 
regarded  as  a  poison.  It  can  never  take  the 
place  of  other  foods  in  health,  it  is  very  ex- 
pensive and  its  excessive  use  is  many  times 
more  harmful  than  the  excessive  indulgence 
in  other  foods.  Speaking  of  its  drug  effects 
Prof.  Atwater,  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
conservative  investigators  of  alcohol  as  a  food 
states :  "At  best  it  is  a  very  expensive  source 
of  nutrition.  For  people  in  health  it  is  unnec- 
essary. The  moderate  use  often  leads  to  ex- 
cess. In  the  judgment  of  the  writer,  its  place 
as  nutriment  is  where  the  user  is  unable,  be- 
cause of  either  debility  or  disease,  to  other- 
wise obtain  fitting  and  sufficient  nourishment 
from  ordinary  food  materials."*  Dr.  W. 
S.  Hall  of  Northwestern  University  Medical 
School  says  "If  we  admit  alcohol  to  a  posi- 
tion among  foods  on  the  simple  ground  of 
49 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM, 

oxidation  we  must  also  admit  numerous  sub- 
stances universally  acknowledged  to  be  toxic."  ' 
Dr.  Madden  of  the  Milwaukee  Medical  Col- 
lege classes  it  strictly  among  the  poisons:  "If 
you  say  that  no  one  claims  that  alcohol  is  a 
food  in  this  large  quantity  and  that  it  is  only 
a  food  to  the  extent  that  it  is  oxidized  and 
does  no  harm,  I  again  answer,  so  is  ether  and 
chloroform,  and  the  alkaloids,  and  I  shall  per- 
sist in  saying  that  these  poisons  are  foods  (to 
a  certain  extent),  as  is  claimed  for  alcohol."* 
It  may  be  said  that  alcohol  is  used  as  a  psudo- 
food  merely  because  it  happens  to  be  near 
at  hand,  that  the  habit  is  acquired  on  account 
of  environment.  As  Dr.  Ford  Robertson  says, 
"I  have  long  maintained  that  the  specific  crav- 
ing for  alcohol  is  never  instinctive,  never  in- 
born, but  always  acquired,  and  therefore  that 
no  man  ever  craves  for  alcohol  who  has  not 
had  previous  experience  with  it."  * 

Is  Beer  "A  Liquid  Food"? — Beer  makers 
and  dealers  of  the  present  time  are  vigorously 
cultivating  the  idea  that  beer  is  a  liquor  food. 
They  maintain,  with  some  show  of  reason,  that 
as  a  part  of  a  mixed  diet,  it  may  be  substituted 
readily  and  economically  for  other  foods,  and 
that  it  not  only  contains  nourishment  itself 
but  also  aids  in  digestion.  The  following  are 
samples  of  the  way  it  is  put  in  a  flood  of 
newspaper,  street-car  and  poster  advertising: 
"Beer  is  adapted  to  the  organism  of  the  adult 
in  much  the  same  way  as  milk  is  to  that  of  the 
infant."  "Dr.  Liebig,  the  famous  German 
chemist,  declares  that  beer  is  a  liquid  food. 
By  this  he  means  a  food — full  of  life-giving, 

50 


ALCOHOL  AND   PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

health-sustaining  qualities."  On  the  contrary 
Dr.  Liebig  says,  "If  a  man  drinks  daily  eight 
or  ten  quarts  of  the  best  Bavarian  beer,  in  the 
course  of  twelve  months  he  will  have  taken  into 
his  stomach  the  nutritous  constituents  of  a 
five  pound  loaf  of  bread."  In  the  summer  of 
1907  the  Pabst  Brewing  Company  of  Milwau- 
kee filled  the  daily  papers  with  the  claim  that 
"The  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture officially  declares  that  beer  is  the  purest 
and  best  of  all  foods  and  drinks."  This 
brought  out  a  vigorous  protest  from  the  Acting 
Secretary  of  Agriculture  who  declared  that 
"No  such  statement  has  ever  been  made  by 
the  Department.  The  Department  does  all  in 
its  power  to  prevent  having  its  views  distorted 
but  I  regret  that  there  is  no  law  by  which  such 
practices  may  be  reached." 

Like  every  half-truth,  which  often  proves  to 
be  the  most  dangerous  of  falsehoods,  there  is 
considerable  foundation  for  the  food-theory  of 
beer,  aside  from  the  more  or  less  combustion 
of  the  alcohol  it  contains.  Thousands  of 
people  of  German,  Dutch,  English  and  Hun- 
garian descent  are  convinced  that  beer  serves 
as  a  sort  of  food.  For  many  of  the  poorest 
beer  and  dark  bread  seem  to  be  their  only 
nourishment  for  long  periods.  Brought  up 
from  childhood  to  see  its  daily  use  on  the  table, 
to  "rush  the  growler"  for  father,  to  see  hard- 
working men  always  going  after  a  can  when 
they  open  the  dinner  pail  at  noon,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  heavy  beer-drinking  classes 
as  well  as  many  of  the  dealers,  should  honestly 
believe  that  beer  is  as  necessary  as  bread.  They 

51 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

know  that  whisky  intoxicates  but  "booze"  is 
a  temperance  drink  and  helps  take  the  place 
of  meat  which  is  so  expensive. 

Analysis  shows  that  an  ordinary  glass  of 
beer,  measuring  about  one-half  pint,  contains 
by  weight  4.46  per  cent  alcohol,  4.61  per  cent 
extract,  .47  per  cent  albuminoids,  .26  per  cent 
free  acids/  The  solid  matter  in  the  beer,  the 
extract,  being  digestible,  serves  to  build  tissue 
and  so  may  properly  be  called  a  food,  even  if 
the  alcohol,  a  narcotic  poison  itself,  may  not 
be  so  called  although  it  is  partly  consumed. 

But  it  is  an  exceedingly  costly,  deceptive  and 
vicious  "food."  Mere  oxidation  in  the  body  or 
the  furnishing  of  some  slight  nutriment  is  not 
sufficient  to  make  an  article  a  practical  food ; 
otherwise  many  well-known  deadly  poisons 
might  well  serve  in  that  capacity. 

If  merely  cost  alone  were  considered  the 
bread  claims  for  beer  would  be  preposterous. 
Five  cents  worth  of  flour  contains  80  times 
more  proteids,  and  61  times  more  carbo- 
hydrates than  a  glass  of  beer  while  the  latter 
has  no  fats  at  all.  Considered  with  reference 
to  the  amount  and  kind  of  solid  material  in 
beer  a  working  man  would  have  to  swallow 
daily  108  glasses  at  a  cost  of  $5.40  to  supply 
the  necessary  amount  of  proteids  needed  daily, 
or  52  glasses  to  furnish  the  carbohydrates. 
This  twenty  seven  quarts  would  contain 
twenty-nine  ounces,  by  weight,  of  absolute 
alcohol.' 

If  the  widest  possible  food-value  of  the  beer 
be  considered,  the  heat-producing  qualities  of 
the  alcohol  and  the  solids  taken  together,  it  is 

52 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

found  that  a  nickel's  worth  of  beer  yields  94.05 
calories  of  heat;  five  cents  worth  of  flour 
2785.84  calories,  the  ratio  being  i  to  39.62. 
"Or,  in  other  words,  to  furnish  heat  equal  to 
that  obtained  from  a  nickel's  worth  of  flour 
requires  the  alcohol  and  solids  of  29.6  glasses 
of  beer,  costing  at  five  cents  per  glass,  $1.48."  ' 
No  workingman  can  afford  to  purchase  heat- 
producing  power  at  such  a  tremendous  cost  to 
say  nothing  of  the  effects  of  the  alcohol  as  a 
drug. 

This  fact  that  there  is  some  food  in  beer 
has  been  the  foundation  for  the  most  vicious 
of  popular  misunderstandings  regarding  its 
common  use.  Late  investigation  is  tending 
to  show  that  it  is  more  deceptive  and  danger- 
ous than  the  stronger  liquors.  Beer  inebriates 
are  more  incurable  than  those  who  get  delirium 
tremens  from  whisky.  The  steady  beer-drink- 
er, while  the  picture  of  health,  is  more  sub- 
ject to  disease  and  to  criminal  insanity.  The 
most  dangerous  ruffians  in  our  large  cities  are 
beer  drinkers.  Its  general  use  in  a  community 
is  more  liable  to  entail  degeneracy  upon  the 
people  as  a  whole.    As  Dr.  Burgen  says  : 

"I  think  beer  kills  quicker  than  any  other 
liquor.  My  attention  was  first  called  to  its 
insidious  effects,  when  I  began  examining  for 
life  insurance.  I  passed  as  unusually  good 
risks  five  Germans — young  business  men — who 
seemed  in  the  best  health,  and  to  have  superb 
constitutions.  In  a  few  years  I  was  amazed 
to  see  the  whole  five  drop  off,  one  after  an- 
other, with  what  ought  to  have  been  mild  and 
easily  curable  diseases.  On  comparing  my  ex- 
68 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

perience  with  that  of  other  physicians  I  found 
they  were  all  having  similar  luck  with  con- 
firmed beer  drinkers,  and  my  practice  since 
has  heaped  confirmation  on  confirmation."  * 

Its  deceptive  effects  are  well  shown  in  the 
case  of  sudden  contagion  or  accident ;  the  beer 
drinker  is  almost  certain  to  succumb.  He 
seems  to  be  all  one  vital  part.  A  worker  in 
the  National  Temperance  Society  gives  a 
graphic  illustration  after  a  visit  to  Bellevue 
hospital  in  New  York : 

"As  we  entered  the  ward,  the  first  sight 
opposite  the  door  was  a  surgeon  dressing  a 
gangrenous  arm.  His  words  to  the  patient,  as 
we  caught  them,  were:  "No,  I  shall  not  let 
you  go  out;  you  would  get  a  glass  of  beer, 
and  that  would  kill  you!"  A  boy  in  another 
bed,  motherless,  friendless,  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land,  speaking  no  word  of  ours,  had 
received  a  slight  wound  which  pure  blood 
would  have  thrown  off;  but  he  was  a  beer 
victim,  and  his  hurt,  with  his  poisoned  blood, 
produced  erysipelas.  Another  had  scratched 
his  finger,  and  his  hand  was  in  danger  of  am- 
putation. And  so  we  went  through  the  list, 
receiving  testimony  unexpected  to  us,  almost 
unasked  by  us,  and  almost  unconsciously  given, 
that  systems  clogged  with  effete  matter  which 
beer  had  prevented  passing  oflF,  were  incapable 
of  resisting  injury  and  disease. 

"Some,  if  not  all,  of  these,  no  doubt,  had 
thought  the  beer  was  doing  them  good.  Many 
boast  of  the  good  it  does  them,  or  of  their 
being  strong  in  spite  of  the  beer.  'I  have 
drank  a  gallon  of  beer  every  day  for  the  last 

64 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

thirty  years,*  said  a  brewer's  drayman,  'and  I 
was  never  in  better  health  than  at  this  moment.' 
Yet  the  very  next  day  he  died  in  a  fit  of 
apoplexy.  The  beer  told  him  that  lie,  and  he 
believed  it." 

Alcohol  as  a  Medicine. — Alcohol,  in  near- 
ly all  of  its  forms,  beer,  wines,  brandies,  whis- 
key, is  one  of  the  most  common  of  all  drugs 
used  as  a  medicine.  It  is  prescribed  by  able 
physicians ;  it  is  used  as  a  cure-all  by  second- 
rate  and  quack  medical  men,  and  it  is  taken, 
with  an  honest  view  to  relief  from  suffering, 
by  the  public  generally  for  all  sorts  of  com- 
plaints, and  without  prescription  of  any  kind 
whatever.  As  a  plan  of  treating  disease  it 
is  hoary  with  age.  It  was  in  common  usage 
at  the  time  that  bleeding  at  the  arm  was  the 
prevailing  method  of  treatment  for  almost 
every  disease ;  the  latter  has  gone  showing 
that  even  a  treatment  of  disease  need  not  be 
regarded  as  best  because  it  is  ancient. 

Alcohol  was  adopted  as  a  remedial  agent  in 
medicine  centuries  ago  when  the  science  was 
young;  it  is  slowly  being  outgrown.  At  the 
present  time  fully  one-fourth  of  the  best  phy- 
sicians of  our  own  country  refuse  to  employ 
it  at  all,  while  most  men  of  ability  regard  it 
as  dangerous  in  many  diseases  where  it  was 
formerly  used  freely.  Many  prominent  hos- 
pitals exc4ude  it  altogether.  The  sentiment 
against  it  is  growing  steadily;  this  in  itself 
is  significant.  "The  medical  profession  as  a 
whole,"  says  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  one  of  Lon- 
don's most  eminent  surgeons,  "has  a  hostile 
rather  than  a  friendly  feeling  toward  the  drug 

65 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

we  call  alcohol.  When  I  was  a  student  alco- 
hol was  the  traditional  remedy  in  surgery  for 
post-operative  conditions ;  it  was  the  tradi- 
tional remedy  for  blood  poisoning,  septicemia 
and  pyemia  following  operations,  and  it  was 
the  traditional  remedy  for  infectious  diseases 
like  pneumonia.  What  is  the  practice  now? 
That  in  all  these  cases  alcohol  is  no  longer 
used.  Forty  years  ago  the  seven  great  hos- 
pitals of  London  spent  annually  about  $40,000 
for  alcoholic  liquors,  and  about  $15,000  for 
milk.  Now  alcohol  and  milk  have  changed 
places.  In  the  Infirmary  at  Salisbury  twenty- 
five  years  ago  $1,500  was  spent  each  year  on 
alcoholic  liquors.  Last  year  the  cost  was  $35. 
These  changes  are  due  to  the  increased  knowl- 
edge of  the  nature  and  efifects  of  alcohol."  *  "If 
alcohol  had  become  a  candidate  for  recogni- 
tion years  ago  instead  of  centuries  ago,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  its  application  in  medicine 
would  have  been  very  much  more  limited  than 
we  find  it  at  present."  * 

Considered  purely  as  a  medicine,  among  the 
best  physicians  its  use  is  steadily  decreasing; 
other  remedies,  more  specific  and  witli  fewer 
attendant  dangers,  are  being  found.  Some 
even  claim  that  there  is  not  a  use  to  which 
alcohol  is  put  in  medicine  for  which  there  are 
not  substitutes  less  dangerous  and  equally  effi- 
cacious. 

But  the  medicinal  aim  is  too  often  sadly 
confused  with  the  beverage  use.  As  with  any 
other  powerful  drug  its  administration  should 
be  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  reliable  and 
conscientious  physicians.  They  should  decide 
66 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

in  each  specific  case  whether  it  is  the  right 
medicine  and  the  amounts  required.  Certainly 
nothing  is  more  unscientific  than  for  each 
patient  to  determine  for  himself  how  much 
alcohol  he  ought  to  have,  how  often  he  ought 
to  take  it,  in  what  form,  whether  as  beer, 
whiskey,  brandy  or  by  any  miscellaneous  com- 
bination of  mixed  drinks  that  may  happen  to 
strike  his  fancy.  The  same  rules  should  apply 
as  govern  the  use  of  similar  powerful  drugs. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  Attractiveness  of  Alcohol. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  22-93. 
Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem,"  Sum- 
mary 31. 
Patton,  "Economic  Basis  of  Prohibition,"  Annals 
of  the  American  Academy,  Vol.  2,  59. 

*  Dr.  Campbell  in  Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem," 

38. 
*Dr,  Campbell  in  Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,' 
36. 

*  Billings  in  Committee  of  Fifty,  Summary,  31. 
The  Source  of  Intoxication. 

Billings,  "Physiological  Aspects  of  the  Liquor 
Problem,"  Vol.  2,  4-26. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem,"  Sum- 
mary, 17-19,  27-28. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  5-6,  34-39- 

Wilson,  "American  Prohibition  Year  Book"  (1907), 
25-27. 

Kerr,  "The  Disease  of  Inebriety,"  Cosmopolitan, 
Vol.  21,  547. 

*  Billings,  "Physiological  Aspects,"  Vol.  2,  26. 

^  Report  State  Board  of  Health,  Public  Document 
No.  34,  Commonwealth  of  Mass. 
Is  Alcohol  a  Food? 

Hall,  "Relation  of  Alcohol  to  Nutrition,"  Jr.  Am. 
Med.  Ass'n,  Vol.  35,  65. 
67 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Madden,  "Food  Value  of  Alcohol,"  Humanitarian, 
Vol.   17,  29-33. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem,"  Sum- 
mary, 21-23. 

Atwater,  "Nutritive  Value  of  Alcohol,"  in  Physio- 
logical Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,"  Vol. 
2,  284-315,  341-343- 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  87-89. 

Martin,  "The  Human  Body,"  304-305. 

'  Billings,  "Physiological  Aspects,"  Vol.  2,  343. 

"  Journal  American  Medical  Association,  July  14, 
1900. 

^  Madden,  "The  Food  Value  of  Alcohol,"  Humani- 
tarian, Vol.   17,  29-33. 

*  Robertson,    "Alcoholism"    (1901);   also,   Kelynak, 

88. 
Beer  a  "Liquid  Food." 

Barker  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

38-39. 

American  Prohibition  Year  Book,  1907,  10-13. 

American  Issue,  Prof.  G.  O.  Higley,  "Is  Beer  a 
Liquid   Food  ?" 

Atwater,  "Nutritive  Value  of  Alcohol,"  in  Physio- 
logical Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem. 

Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  87-89. 

'  Prof.  G.  O.  Higley,  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
in  American  Issue. 

*Prof.  Higley. 

•Prof.  Higley. 

*  From  speech  by  Senator  Gallinger,  Congressional 

Record,  Jan.  9,  1901. 
Alcohol  as  a  Medicine. 

(lustafson,  "1  he  Foundation  of  Death,"   181-225. 

Wheeler,   '■Prohibition,"   39-47. 

Kellogg,  "Alcohol  Not  a  Aledicine,"  New  Voice, 
Aug.   7.    1902. 

Martin,  "  1  he   Human   Body,"  304-5. 

'  Address  of  Sir  Victor  Horsley  at  annual  meeting 
of  British  Medical  Association,  Toronto,  1906, 
before   Dominion   Alliance. 

"Dr.  Winfield  S.  Hall,  Prof.  Physiology,  North- 
western  Univ.   Medical   School,  Chicago. 


68 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH:  THE 
PRACTICAL  SOCIAL  PROBLEM 

Alcohol  as  a  Source  of  Disease.— Every- 
one that  has  to  do  with  the  welfare  of  his 
fellows  as  physician,  minister,  or  social  service 
worker,  as  well  as  the  everyday  observer, 
knows  by  sad  experience  how  vast  is  the 
amount  of  sickness  and  disease  coming  in  part 
or  wholly  from  alcohol.  Directly  and  indirectly 
drink,  without  doubt,  is  one  of  the  most  pro- 
lific of  all  sources  of  disease,  both  physical  and 
mental.  Not  only  are  there  definite  alcoholic 
diseases,  as  such,  but  by  lowering  the  powers 
of  physical  resistance  and  vitality  or  on  ac- 
count of  the  poverty  caused  by  its  excessive 
use  by  others,  it  opens  up  the  way  for  a  thou- 
sand other  ills.  Since  very  few  regard  alco- 
holic drinks  as  a  necessity  of  life  it  becomes 
one  of  the  most  useless  and  inexcusable  of  all 
the  possible  causes  of  public  and  personal  ill 
h^lth. 
j(*vVhile  physiologists  are  trying  to  settle  just 
how  much  "food"  value  there  is  in  alcohol, 
the  physician  and  the  practical  sociologist,  who 
have  to  deal  with  people  as  they  are,  have  dis- 
covered the  following  vital  facts :  ( i )  Alco- 
holism is  itself  a  very  serious  and  common  dis- 
ease.    (2)  There  are  a  large  number  of  other 

59 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

common  forms  of  physical  ill  due  directly  to 
the  use  of  alcohol.  (3)  Those  who  use  liquors 
even  moderately  are  more  liable  to  sickness, 
are  more  difTicult  to  cure,  and  die  earlier  than 
total  abstainers.  (4)  Intemperance  is  a  chief 
cause  of  all  forms  of  mental  disease  and  de- 
ficiency.-' 

I.  Alcoholism,  or  inebriety,  is  the  direct  re- 
sult of  alcoholic  poisoning.  It  comes  from 
the  regular  and  continuous  use  of  liquors,  in 
small  or  moderate  amounts  in  some  cases,  and 
from  deep  indulgence  at  periodic  occasions. 
It  attacks  first  and  most  prominently  the 
higher  nerve  centers  and  is  characterized  by 
all  sorts  of  brain  affectations.  In  its  severest 
stages  it  leads  to  death  in  what  is  known  as 
delirium  tremens,  a  kind  of  temporary  insan- 
ity. Acute  alcoholic  poisoning  is  somewhat, 
different,  since  it  comes  from  the  taking  of 
very  large  amounts  of  alcohol  at  one  time,  usu- 
ally in  the  form  of  the  stronger  distilled  liq- 
uors, and  frequently  results  in  almost  imme- 
diate death. 

There  are  many  forms  of  this  disease  known 
to  medical  men  and  called  by  various  names. 
But  in  all  the  liquor  appetite,  the  intense  crav- 
ing for  alt  ohol,  is  a  prominent  feature.  This 
longing  for  strong  drink,  which  at  first  was 
repugnaiit  to  tlic  normal  healthy  taste,  becomes 
established  and  grows  stronger  and  stronger 
with  each  gratification.  The  progressive  ap- 
petite for  alcohol  becomes  something  more 
than  a  habit ;  it  is  both  a  disease  and  a  symp- 
tom of  disease;l  conditions.  It  is  an  important 
social  fact  to  notice  that  the  appetite  for  in- 
60 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

toxicating  liquors  is  not  normal,  whether  it  is 
the  result  of  inherited  tendencies  or  of  ac- 
quired habit.  NothiuiT  which  creates  an  in- 
creasing demand  for  itself  can  be  a  hcalthfnl 
article  of  food  or  drink. 

There  are  certain  people  whose  disposition 
is  such  that  they  do  not  acquire  any  noticeable 
appetite  for  intoxicants,  even  after  continuous 
moderate  use.  This  is  the  exception,  however, 
rather  than  the  rule.  In  many  of  these  cases 
all  tile  other  symptoms  of  alcoholism  may  de- 
velop. Men  have  died  from  chronic  alcoliol- 
ism  and  far  more  have  been  seriously  injured 
themselves,  or  left  upon  society  the  biu'dcn  of 
caring  for  deficient  children,  who  were  never 
noticeably  intoxicated  or  were  regnrried  as 
anything  more  than  moderate  drinkers  by  their 
most  intimate  friends. 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  one  of  the  ablest  students 
of  this  subject,  says,  "Let  the  world  of  intel- 
lect, of  science,  of  morals,  of  religion,  and  of 
statesmanship  once  grasp  the  great  truth  that 
there  is  a  physical  element  in  intoxication  and 
the  strong  inijiulse  thereto;  that  the  most  of 
those  who  have  gone  under,  some  of  them  the 
most  highly-gifted  and  most  noble-souled  of 
men  and  women,  have  been  subjects  of  a  dire 
disease,  and  the  true  way  of  cure,  reform  and 
prevention  will  speedily  be  made  plain." ' 

2.  The  alcoholic  diseases.  In  addition  to 
what  may  be  termed  strictly  alcoholism,  there 
are  a  number  of  other  affectations  due  directly 
to  alcohol.  Chief  among  these  are  cirrhosis, 
or  hardening  of  the  liver ;  ninety  percent  of 
all   cases   of   this   disease   are   so   chargeable, 

61 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

while  some  medical  men  claim  that  it  is  due 
exclusively  to  intemperance.  Most  physicians 
regard  alcohol  as  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
Bright's  disease.  Various  disorders  of  the 
heart,  with  enlargement  or  the  growth  of  adi- 
pose tissue  leading  to  early  breakdown ;  de- 
generation of  the  J^lood  vessels,  resulting  in 
apoplexy,  paralysis,  etc.,  have  among  their 
chief  cause  the  use  of  alcohol.  It  seems  to 
have  a  special  affinity  for  the  nervous  system, 
leading  to  many  diseases  that  are  often  com- 
plicated with  inherited  defects,  due  to  the  use 
of  alcohol  by  fathers,  grandfathers  and  gener- 
ations even  further  back. 

3.  Reduces  the  Powers  of  Resistance. — 
Perhaps  the  heaviest  charge  that  can  be  made 
against  alcoholic  intemperance  as  a  menace 
to  public  health  is  the  part  it  plays  in  reducing 
the  normal  physical  powers  of  resistance  to 
disease.  The  liquor-soaked  man  is  almost 
helpless.  He  is  the  first  victim  of  contagion, 
the  hardest  to  deal  with  by  physicians,  and 
the  most  likely  to  die  during  an  epidemic.  He 
is  harder  to  treat  when  sick,  and  ordinarily 
has  fewer  chances  of  recovery.  In  surgical 
cases  his  wounds  heal  more  slowly  and  are 
far  more  likely  to  "go  wrong"  or  fail  to  heal 
at  all.  It  matters  little  whether  alcohol  is 
taken  in  large  saturating  quantities  or  in  what 
is  regarded  by  many  as  moderation ;  in  time 
the  system  loses  its  resisting  power  and  falls 
a  ready  victim  to  disease.  Malaria  and  fevers 
find  a  ready  field.  Epidemics,  such  as  cholera, 
signal  out  drinkers  at  their  first  attack.  Doc- 
tor Cartwright  of  New  Orleans,  who  served 

02 


ALCOHOL  AND   PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

through  the  great  yellow  fever  epidemic  there, 
said  afterward,  "About  5.000  of  them  (the 
regular  drinkers)  died  before  the  epidemic 
touched  a  single  citizen  or  sober  man.  so  far 
as  I  can  get  at  the  facts." '  Having  acquired 
virulence  by  feeding  upon  such  material  its 
vicious  invasion  continued  until  thousands 
more  of  all  classes  fell — a  powerful  illustra- 
tion of  the  effects  that  society  as  a  whole  must 
reap  from  the  unrestrained  and  abnormal  ap- 
petites and  habits  of  a  single  class. 

Consumption,  "the  great  white  death,"  was 
formerly  thought  to  be  retarded  by  alcohol. 
Now  it  is  known  to  have  the  very  opposite 
effect ;  indeed,  in  the  crowded  poorer  sections 
of  great  cities  it  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
this  dread  disease.  Pneumonia,  one  of  the 
most  prevalent  and  dangerous  of  modern  af- 
flictions, is  incurable,  indeed,  it  is  regarded 
by  the  best  physicians  of  Chicago  as  far  more 
fatal  than  consumption,  when  it  attacks  a  man 
who  has  been  accustomed  to  the  use  of  liquor 
in  anything  more  than  the  most  moderate 
quantities.  We  need  not  seek  for  examples 
among  rare  or  occasional  epidemics,  such  as 
cholera.  It  is  right  among  these  most  com- 
mon of  all  afflictions,  the  pulmonary  diseases, 
that  alcohol  gets  in  its  fatal  share  of  work. 

The  milder  liquors,  such  as  beer,  seem  to  be 
no  less  dangerous  as  a  predisposing  cause 
toward  disease  than  are  the  stronger  alco- 
holics. The  average  experience  of  the  able  and 
conscientious  physician  reads  about  like  this 
one  chosen  as  a  fair  sample :  "The  first  organ 
to  be  attacked  is  the  kidneys ;  the  liver  soon 
63 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

sympathizes,  and  then  comes,  most  frequently, 
dropsy  or  Bright's  disease,  both  certain  to  end 
fatally.  Any  physician  who  cares  to  take  the 
time  will  tell  you  that  among  the  dreadful 
results  of  beer  drinking  are  lockjaw  and  ery- 
sipelas, and  that  the  beer  drinker  seems  in- 
capable of  recovering  from  mild  disorders  and 
injuries  not  usually  regarded  as  of  a  grave 
character.  Pneumonia,  pleurisy,  fevers,  etc., 
seem  to  have  a  first  mortgage  on  him,  which 
they  foreclose  remorselessly  at  an  early  op- 
portunity. 

"The  beer  drinker  is  much  worse  ofT  than 
the  whiskey  drinker,  who  seems  to  have  more 
elasticity  and  reserve  power.  He  will  even 
have  delirium  tremens ;  but  after  the  fit  is 
gone  you  will  sometimes  find  good  material 
to  work  upon.  Good  management  may  bring 
him  around  all  right.  But  when  a  beer  drinker 
gets  into  trouble  it  seems  almost  as  if  you 
have  to  recreate  the  man  before  you  can  do 
anything  for  him.  I  have  talked  this  for  years, 
and  have  had  abundance  of  living  and  dead 
instances  around  me  to  support  my  opinions." 

4.  Insanity  and  Drink. — The  disease  of 
alcoholism  itself  is  little  less  than  a  form  of 
insanity.  In  it  are  found  all  forms  of  mental 
unbalance  from  melancholia  to  imbecility.  In- 
toxication is  a  sort  of  temporary  insanity.  As 
described  by  Dr.  Arthur  MacDonald:'  "It  be- 
gins with  a  slight  maniacal  excitation ; 
thoughts  flow  lucidly,  the  quiet  become  loqua- 
cious, the  modest  bold ;  there  is  need  of  mus- 
cular action,  the  emotions  are  manifest  in 
laughing,    singing   and    dancing.      Now,    the 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

esthetical  ideas  and  moral  impulses  are  lost 
control  of,  the  weak  side  of  the  individual  is 
manifested,  his  secrets  revealed ;  he  is  dog- 
matic, cruel,  cynical,  dangerous;  he  insists  that 
he  is  not  drunk,  just  as  the  insane  insists  on 
his  sanity." 

As  a  direct  cause  of  insanity,  Dr.  Clauson 
of  the  Royal  Edinburgh  Asylum  says,  "Alco- 
hol excess  is  the  most  frequent  single  exciting 
cause  of  mental  disease,  and  it  acts,  also,  as 
a  predisposing  cause  in  very  many  cases. 
Doctor  Billings,  representing  the  Committee 
of  Fifty,  has  made  a  very  recent  compilation 
of  reports  from  numerous  insane  asylums, 
which  show  that  not  more  than  from  fourteen 
to  thirty-nine  percent  of  all  inmates  were 
total  abstainers.  The  average  of  these  reports 
show  that  24.08  percent  of  all  the  insanity 
was  attributed  by  the  authorities  of  these  in- 
stitutions to  the  influence  of  liquor.  This 
probably  includes  those  in  which  the  tendency 
to  insanity  was  inherited  and  due  to  use  of 
liquor  by  parents  and  those  in  which  it  was  a 
contributory  as  well  as  a  direct  cause. 

"Whatever  be  its  origin,  and  whatever  its 
relationships,  drunkenness  is  on  the  way  to 
mental  death,  and,  unless  a  stronger  factor  in- 
tervenes to  check  the  process,  or  a  fortuitous 
illness  anticipates  the  end,  the  drunkard  and 
his  seed  after  him  are  moribund."  ^ 

Intemperance  as  a  Contributory  Cause  of 
Disease. — The  public  health  aspects  of  in- 
temperance must  include  the  indirect  conse- 
quences of  the  liquor  habit,  as  well  as  those 
directly  traceable  to  it.  It  has  an  effect  upon 
65 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

certain  social  conditions,  these  in  turn  bearing 
upon  the  public  health.  The  use  of  alcohol  is 
often  one  of  several  factors  in  producing  pub- 
lic unsanitary  conditions,  as  well  as  in  causing 
individual  sickness.  Some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant of  these  are : 

1.  Intemperance  induces  poverty  and  con- 
sequent neglect  of  health.  This  is  especially 
true  atnong  the  better  classes  of  laboring  men.* 
Where  the  head  of  the  family  must  pay  out 
daily  or  weekly  a  large  percent  of  his  income 
for  liquors,  he  cannot  have  sufficient  to  spend 
for  necessary  clothes,  food  and  shelter.  His 
family  must  be  huddled  together  in  small  un- 
ventilated  rooms,  fuel  is  lacking  in  winter  and 
the  thousand  pathetic  stories  of  the  drunkard's 
family  are  the  result.  And  it  is  often  the 
moderate  drinker  who  thus  makes  his  family 
sufifer  most  for  his  own  indulgence. 

2.  The  weight  of  the  drink  bill  upon  the 
family  compels  the  mother  to  overwork  and 
neglect  her  children.  The  children  become 
mentally  and  physically  weak  and  a  ready 
prey  to  acute  disease.  Boys  and  girls  wlio 
should  be  in  school  must  go  to  work  prema- 
turely in  order  to  help  bear  the  family  bur- 
den ;  they  suffer  physical  injury,  and  the  com- 
munity must  bear  the  burden  of  their  later 
inefficiency.  These  problems  have  become  the 
most  difficult  of  all  social  difficulties  of  the 
day,  and  the  drink  habit  stands  right  at  the 
base  among  their  chief  causes. 

3.  Drink  and  immorality  go  hand  in  hand. 
There  is  a  large  class  of  diseases  due  directly 
to  immorality,  for  which  the  alcohol  habit  is 

66 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

partly  responsible.  It  is  a  significant  fact, 
worthy  of  special  study,  that  in  Kansas  since 
the  prohibitory  law  has  gone  into  effect,  there 
has  been  a  distinct  falling  off  of  venereal  and 
similar  diseases.  Medical  men  from  various 
parts  of  the  state  testify  to  this.  Says  Dr. 
Wm.  B.  Swan,  secretary  Kansas  State  Board 
of  Health,  "It  is  a  fact  well  known  among 
medical  men  that  a  decrease  in  the  consump- 
tion of  intoxicants  lessens  venereal  diseases."* 
Doctor  Menninger  of  the  Kansas  Homeo- 
pathic Society  said,  "The  strict  enforcement 
of  the  prohibition  law  in  Kansas  would  re- 
duce to  the  minimum  the  social  vice,  if  not 
entirely  obliterate  it.'"  If  the  removal  of  the 
general  sale  of  liquors  has  helped  to  improve 
to  this  extent  these  social  conditions  it  is  cer- 
tainly a  long  step  toward  improving  public 
health. 

The  Source  of  Race  Degeneracy.—"  Typ- 
ically, the  action  induced  in  the  brain  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  progressive  paralysis,  begin- 
ning with  the  highest  level  and  its  most  deli- 
cate functions  and  spreading  gradually  down- 
ward through  the  lower.  Moral  qualities  and 
the  higher  processes  of  intelligence  are  first 
invaded.  Self-control  is  lost,  and  the  judg- 
ment defective.'"  Thus  alcohol  strikes  first 
at  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  qualities ; 
add  to  this  the  tendency  to  leave  its  results  on 
later  generations,  both  by  the  transmission  of 
inferior  physical  powers  and  by  the  educative 
effects  of  lowered  family  and  social  conditions 
during  childhood,  and  the  alcohol  habit  be- 
comes a  great  source  of  race  degeneracy. 
67 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

It  is  a  fact  known  to  everyday  observation 
and  thoroughly  supported  by  our  best  socio- 
logical investigators  that  the  children  of 
drunkards  are  not  up  to  par.  Moral  obtuse- 
ness  and  mental  dullness  are  common ;  epilep- 
tic, imbecile  and  idiotic  offspring  are  more 
frequent  among  drinkers  than  among  temper- 
ate classes ;  this  is  particularly  severe  where 
both  parents  are  intemperate ;  insanity  and 
/  tendencies  toward  it  are  more  common.  Dr. 
^  Howe,  after  careful  investigation,  fomid  that 
50  per  cent  of  all  the  idiots  in  the  state  of 
Massachusetts,  examined  by  him,  were  the 
children  of  intemperate  parents.* 

The  persistent  use  of  even  small  doses  of 
alcohol,  taken,  as  it  usually  is  in  beer,  tends 
to  produce  functional  changes.  Even  the  man 
who  is  never  noticeably  intoxicated  may  be 
seriously  injured  in  this  respect.  These 
changes  more  readily  transmit  themselves  to 
the  next  generation  in  lowered  vitality,  mental, 
moral  and  physical.  Even  when  the  drinker 
himself  does  not  seem  to  bear  serious  results 
he  often  initiates  degeneracy  in  the  family 
which  in  the  end  will  tend  to  eliminate  the 
tainted  stock  from  the  sphere  of  active  life. 
Many  a  man  who  calls  himself  a  moderate 
drinker  is  in  danger  of  leaving  upon  society 
a  greater  burden  than  if  he  rapidly  ruined' 
himself  through  excess  and  threzv  himself  di- 
rectly upon  its  support. 

Judge  Pitman  classifies  drink's  heritage 
upon  society,  after  completing  its  work  of  ruin 
in  one  generation,  as  follows:* 

(1)   Lessens  physical  and  mental  force  and 

68 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

SO  reduces  the  power  of  industrial  production. 

(2)  Entails  disease  and  lowers  the  tone  of 
public  health. 

(3)  By  impairment  of  vital  force  increases 
pauperism. 

(4)  By  animalizing  the  moral  nature  it  fos- 
ters crime. 

Professor  Brinton.  in  the  "Basis  of  Social 
Relations."  savs:  "Its  worst  effects  are  not 
the  violence  to  which  it  occasionally  leads  or 
the  frightful  nervous  diseases  which  its  ex- 
cessive use  entails,  but  the  slow  hardening  of 
the  'axis  cylinders'  in  the  nerve  sheaths,  the 
immediate  consequence  of  which  is  permanent 
deterioration  of  mental  activity.  Extended 
throughout  a  community,  this  means  a  lessen- 
ing of  its  energy  and  of  its  finest  mental  quali- 
ties. Chronic  alcoholism  of  this  kind  does  not 
materially  shorten  life,  but  it  is  eminently 
transmissible,  and  this  soddens  the  stock.  The 
white  race  is  most  exposed  to  these  mental 
and  nervous  effects  of  alcohol,  while  the  red 
and  black  races  escape  them  in  large  measure." 

Health  the  First  Essential.— The  vital  im- 
portance of  the  hygienic-physiological  phase 
of  the  liquor  problem  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. Health  is  the  very  first  essential 
to  public  well-being  and  private  happiness. 
All  other  aims  in  human  welfare,  getting  of 
wealth,  intellectual  enjoyment,  social  pleasure 
and  even  spiritual  development,  depend  upon 
or  are  conditioned  by  it.  The  very  existence 
of  the  state  is  threatened  by  that  which  causes 
degeneracy  in  any  considerable  number  of  its 
citizens. 

If   personal   drinking  of  alcoholic  liquors 

69 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

is  injurious  to  health,  and  the  facts  show  that 
this  is  true,  it  strikes  at  what  is  fundamental  in 
society.  It  is  therefore  no  longer  a  private 
matter  but  a  burning  public  question.  Its 
consequences  are  passed  on  to  others  both  by 
personal  association  and  contact,  and  by  trans- 
mission, thus  entailing  a  burden  upon  society 
in  the  future. 

The  craving  for  alcohol  is  not  normal  but 
must  be  created.  When  established  it  becomes 
the  most  persistent,  useless  and  always-acting 
source  of  the  whole  complicated  problem. 
While  hundreds  of  thousands  continue  to  drink 
more  or  less  moderately  the  beginnings  of 
degeneracy  are  established  in  such  communi- 
ties and  families.  Natural  selection  does  not 
seem  to  provide  a  method  by  which  men  may 
become  accustomed  to  the  use  of  this  toxic 
stimulant.  The  "fit"  who  survive  are  not 
those  who  learn  to  use  it  with  impunity,  but 
those  who  abstain  totally.  As  Dr.  Henry 
Campbell,  President  of  the  London  Society 
for  the  study  of  Inebriety,  after  a  careful 
study  of  "The  Evolution  of  the  Alcoholic," 
says  recently:  "We  arrive,  then,  at  the  con- 
clusion that  whatever  adaptation  to  alcohol 
has  taken  place  in  civilized  communities  has 
essentially  been  by  the  evolution  of  a  type  of 
individual  capable  of  resisting  its  allure- 
ments." ' 

I.  The  first  instinct  of  the  individual  and 
the  first  aim  of  society  organized  into  govern- 
ment is  self-protection.  No  duty  under  the 
police  power  of  the  state  is  more  sacred  than 
the  preservation  of  public  health;  it  is  one  of 
the  duties  which  always  belongs  to  govern- 
70 


ALCOHOL  AND  PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

ment.  "Whatever  refinements  speculative  phi- 
losophy may  have  taught  as  to  the  sphere  of 
the  state  in  regard  to  public  morals,"  says 
Judge  Pitman,"  but  few  have  ever  been  auda- 
cious enough  to  question  its  duty  to  care  for 
the  public  health,"  In  order  to  make  even 
political  and  economic  reforms  possible  when 
the  American  troops  took  charge  of  Havana 
in  1898,  the  cleaning  of  the  streets  and  opening 
of  sewers  had  to  be  attended  to  first.  To 
drain  the  canal  zone  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
mosquitoes  that  cause  fevers  was  the  first  en- 
gineering problem  to  be  taken  up  by  the  Pana- 
ma Canal  Commission  when  the  work  was 
undertaken  on  a  modern  scientific  basis.  How 
equally  more  business-like  and  scientific  that 
government  should  take  a  hand  in  removing 
the  source  of  so  vast  and  preventable  an 
amount  of  disease  and  death,  physical  and 
mental,  as  comes  annually  from  the  unlimited 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors.  Getting  down  to 
first  principles  in  government  "the  question  of 
high  or  low  license,  local  option,  and  the  vast 
machinery  of  moral  forces  that  seek  relief 
by  the  church,  the  pledge,  the  prayer,  and  the 
temperance  society,  will  be  forgotten,  and  the 
evil  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  summary  way  in 
which  enlightened  communities  deal  with 
other  ascertained  causes  of  dangerous  dis- 
eases." * 

2.  With  habit  as  a  competing  force  the  or- 
ganized power  of  government  is  necessary  to 
supplement  and  make  successful  the  work  of 
education  against  excess  and  the  change  of 
public  customs  to  that  of  temperance,  which 
must  constantly  go  on.  A  craving  or  habit  for 
71 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

alcoholic  liquors  "means  neither  more  nor  less 
than  that  an  artificial  state  has  been  set  up, 
which  can  only  be  changed  by  a  stoppage  of 
the  supply  of  material  which  feeds  the  condi- 
tions. It  is  useless  to  moderate  the  inordinate 
smoker's  tobacco,  it  must  be  stopped  alto- 
gether ;  so  with  alcohol,  so  with  opium." ' 

3.  Society  must  prevent  its  own  deg^eda- 
tion  at  any  cost  to  private  liberty  to  drink  in- 
toxicants. It  should  protect  itself  from  the 
burdens  of  ruinous  private  indulgences  and 
must  defend  the  innocent  members  of  society. 

4.  The  inherent  nature  of  the  evils  coming 
from  liquor,  with  the  toxic  qualities  of  alcohol 
always  present  in  larger  or  smaller  quantities, 
makes  even  the  moderate  use  a  danger,  actual 
or  threatening,  to  society.  There  is  no  way 
to  cure  the  physical  source  of  intemperance 
but  by  making  its  gratification  impossible — 
limiting  the  inducements  to  drink  by  prohibit- 
ing the  manufacture  and  sale. 

References  and  Authorities. 

Alcohol  as  a  Source  of  Disease. 

Billings,    "Physiological    Aspects    of     the     Liquor 
Problem,"  Vol.  2,  362-372. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink   Problem,"  52-83. 

Gustafson,  "The  Foundation  of  Death,"  127-151. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  "The  Liquor  Problem,"  Sum- 
mary, 23-27. 

Kerr,   "The  Disease  of   Inebriety,"   Cosmopolitan, 
Vol.  21,  547. 

'  Kerr,   "The   Disease  of  Inebriety." 
Reduces  the  Powers  of  Resistance. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  70-83. 

Billings,  "The  Physiological  Aspects,"  Vol.  2,  372. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
40. 

7a 


ALCOHOL  AND   PUBLIC   HEALTH. 

^  Dr.    Bergen,    from    speech  by   Senator   Gallinger, 
Congressional  Record,  Jan.  g,  1901. 
Insanity  and  Drink. 

Henderson,    "Dependents,    Defectives    and    Delin- 
quents," 90-91. 

Wilson,  "Drunkenness,"  44-52. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
40-42. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  97-107,  236-237. 

Gustafson,  "The  Foundation  of  Death,"  141-151. 

Billings,  "Physiological  Aspects,"  Vol.  i,  34i-3s5. 

^  MacDonald,  "Abnormal  Man,"  Doc.  No.  195,  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education. 

■  Wilson,  "Drunkenness." 
Intemperance  as  a  Contributory  Cause. 

Warner,  "American   Charities,"  63-66. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"   122-151 ;  238-239. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

37-47- 
Stephens,   "Prohibition  in  Kansas,"   loo-i. 
^  Warner.   "American   Charities."  61. 
"  Stephens,  "Prohibition  in  Kansas,"  lOl. 
The  Source  of  Race  Degeneracy. 

Warner,   "American   Charities,"  62-66. 

Booth,  "Pauperism,"    140-1. 

Kelynak,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  18-9,  229-239. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

42-53- 

^  Wilson,  "Drunkenness,"  15. 

"  Warner,  "American  Charities,"  62-63. 

^  Pitman,   "Alcohol   and  the   State. 
Health  the  First  Essential. 

Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  85-89,  122-151. 

Crothers,  "Shall  Prohibition  Laws  Be  Abolished?", 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  45 :232. 

Rowntree  and   Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem," 34-41. 

Pitman,  "Alcohol  and  the  State,"  41-43. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
40-41. 

^  Kelynack,  42. 

'  Crothers,    "Shall     Prohibition    Laws     Be    Abol- 
ished?", Popular  Science  Monthly,  45:232. 

'  Shaw  in  Kelynack,  87. 

^  Pitman,  "Alcohol  and  the  State,"  40. 
78 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

The  American  Drink  Bill.  —  The  most 
usual  estimate  of  the  mag'nitude  of  the  drink 
problem  is  its  cost  in  dollars  and  cents.  The 
amount  of  money  spent  for  intoxicants  during 
a  single  year  presents  a  definite,  concrete  sub- 
ject for  study  and  comparison,  although  the 
exact  amount  can  not  be  known  positively  but 
must  be  estimated.  Each  year,  the  amount 
now  paid  for  intoxicating  drinks  of  all  kinds 
at  retail  exceeds  a  billion  and  a  half  dollars — 
a  sum  so  vast  that  the  mind  can  not  grasp  its 
significance. 

The  amount  of  liquors  used  during  1906, 
as  shown  by  the  Statistical  Abstract  of  the 
United  States,  was  larger  than  for  any  previ- 
ous year  in  the  history  of  the  nation.  The  in- 
crease was  not  only  in  the  total  consumption 
of  1,874,225,409  gallons,  an  increase  of  more 
than  180,000,000  gallons  over  that  of  1905, 
but  also  in  the  actual  amount  used  per  capita, 
which  rose  from  20.38  gallons  in  1905  to  22.27 
gallons  for  every  man,  Vi^oman  and  child  in 
the  whole  country.* 

England,     Germany     and     most     European 

states  are  more  drunken,  on  the  average,  than 

are  the  people  of  the  United  States.     Yet,  in 

those  countries  has  been  for  years  a  steady  de- 

74 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR   HABIT. 

crease  in  the  actual  amount  of  liquor  used  per 
inhabitant,  while  in  this  country,  in  spite  of 
temperance  educational  laws,  local  option  and 
local  and  state  prohibition,  the  relative  and 
actual  increase  in  the  consumption  of  intoxi- 
cants has  been  steady  and  without  variation, 
for  fifty  years  or  more.  During  the  last  ten 
years,  tlie  period  of  greatest  organization  and 
political  power  in  the  liquor  trade,  as  well  as 
the  time  of  greatest  temperance  activity,  the 
growth  has  been  at  an  average  of  67,000,000 
gallons  per  year. 

For  a  hundred  years  a  differentiation  in 
the  liquor  habit  has  been  going  on.  Where 
formerly  almost  everybody  took  a  drink  oc- 
casionally, or  oftener,  now  only  a  minority  of 
adults  drink  regularly  or  at  all.  Those  who  do 
drink  consume  a  far  larger  amount  each,  not 
only  of  the  less  intoxicating  malt  liquors,  but 
also  of  whiskies  and  wines  as  well.  The  habit, 
or  social  custom,  or  both,  are  less  popular  but 
more  intense  each  year.  The  temperance 
movement  of  a  century  has  resulted  in  making 
a  large  per  cent,  of  the  people  total  abstainers, 
and  in  increasing  the  number  of  moderate 
drinkers,  while  at  the  same  time,  those  who 
have  persisted  in  drinking  have  added  im- 
mensely to  the  average  amount  used.  This  is 
partly  due  to  the  tremendous  growth  in  the 
amount  of  beer  used  which  was  1.36  gallons 
per  capita  in  1840  but  arose  to  20.20  gallons 
in  1906;  it  was  also  partly  due  to  the  change 
in  the  character  of  the  immigration  from 
Europe  which,  during  the  past  few  years,  has 
been   chiefly   of   the   lower  and   more   intem- 

75 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

perate  classes,  but  most  of  all,  is  it  due  to  the 
tremendous  concentration  of  the  beer  industry 
into  the  control  of  fewer  and  fewer  men  each 
year. 

No  claim  is  made  more  strongly  or  persist- 
ently by  liquor  men  than  the  one  that  the 
milder  alcoholics,  such  as  beer  with  4.4  per 
cent,  alcohol  is  rapidly  being  substituted  for 
the  stronger  liquors  with  from  35  to  60  per 
cent,  alcohol.  The  facts  are  decidedly  against 
this  claim.  As  a  whole,  it  is  true,  the  increasfed 
consumption  since  1840  has  been  almost  ex- 
clusively of  malt  liquors,  while  the  propor- 
tion of  spirits  has  remained  about  what  it 
was  at  that  time.  From  that  year,  selected 
because  it  is  the  year  when  official  figures 
are  first  available,  until  1896  there  was  a 
slight  decrease ;  for  the  last  ten  years,  how- 
ever, the  increase  has  been  steady  and  un- 
broken running  fom  i.oi  gallons  per  capita 
to  1. 5 1  gallons  in  1906."  In  no  sense  is  beer 
serving  as  "a  temperance  drink,"  to  decease 
the  use  of  whiskies. 

The  tremendous  growth  of  the  drink  habit 
is  shown  when  the  figures  are  brought  to- 
gether in  ten-year  periods.  In  1876,  the  per 
capita  use  of  liquors  was  8.61  gallons;  in  1886, 
it  was  12.92  gallons;  in  1896,  17.12  gallons; 
in  1906,  22.27  gallons,  or  a  total  of  1.874,- 
225,409  gallons.  A  very  small  per  cent.,  not 
more  than  five,  the  Internal  Revenue  De- 
partment estimates  it  at  4^,  used  in  the 
arts,  for  manufacturing  purposes  and  in  the 
compounding  of  medicines.  On  the  other 
hand,   "adulteration   or  reduction  is  generally 

76 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

practiced,  the  amount  ranging  from  50  per 
cent,  upwards.  The  wholesaler  usually  makes 
at  least  i^^  barrels  out  of  every  barrel  (of 
spirits)  received  from  the  government.  What 
the  retailer  adds  is  not  publicly  known."' 

There  are  many  estimates  as  to  the  annual 
national  drink  bill.  There  are  so  many  factors 
entering  in,  such  as  adulteration  in  the  saloons, 
the  average  number  of  drinks  per  barrel  or 
gallon,  the  prices  paid,  illicit  sales,  etc.,  that 
the  actual  first  cost  to  the  purchasing  public 
can  not  be  ascertained  exactly.  We  give  here 
two  very  careful  estimates,  that  of  the  Amer- 
ican Grocer,  which  every  year  compiles  3S  a 
purely  business  matter  for  its  patrons  statistics 
covering  the  retail  sales  of  all  liquors,  and  that 
of  the  American  Prohibition  Year  Book, 
whose  estimate  is  no  less  carefully  made  but 
is  somewhat  larger.  Other  equally  reliable 
estimates,  even  larger,  might  be  given,  but  the 
figures  are  so  nearly  incomprehensible  in  any 
case  that  nothing  is  lost  in  being  as  conserva- 
tive as  the  facts  will  permit. 

According  to  the  American  Grocer,*  the  re- 
tail cost  of  intoxicating  beverages  for  1906 
was  $1,450,855,448,  or  an  average  of  $17.74 
for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  United 
States.  Cotmting  the  average  family  at  having 
five  members,  it  makes  a  yearly  family  drink 
bill  of  $88.70  for  temperate  and  intemperate 
families  alike.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
this  is  a  very  conservative  estimate  made  by  a 
magazine  more  or  less  interested  in  the  liquor 
business  itself. 

The  Year  Book's'  estimate  takes  into  account 
77 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

adulterations,  as  far  as  possible,  and  puts  the 
annual  expenditure  at  $2,320,319,623,  or  an 
average  of  $27.64  per  capita.  The  family 
drink  bill  under  this  estimate  reaches  $138.20. 
These  figures  are  collected  by  the  prohibition- 
ists interested  in  overthrowing  the  evil,  but 
who  can  have  no  object  in  overestimating  the 
size  of  their  task.  Certainly  the  direct  annual 
cost  can  not  be  less  than  a  billion  and  a  half 
dollars  and  probably  it  is  more  than  two  bil- 
lions. During  the  past  ten  years,  it  has  in- 
creased at  the  rate  of  $50,000,000  per  year.  By 
the  most  conservative  figures  the  expenditure 
for  a  single  year  on  drink  would  dig  six  par- 
allel  Panama  canals. 

The  First  Cost  in   the   Drink   Bill.— What 

becomes  of  the  two  billion  dollars  annually 
spent  for  liquors?  There  must  be  entries  on 
the  other  side  of  the  ledger ;  what  are  they  and 
what  do  they  indicate  ? 

This  immense  amount  of  money  paid  out 
each  year  by  the  consumer  of  alcoholic  drinks 
is  distributed  into  three  chief  but  very  different 
channels:  (1)  to  the  producers  of  the  mate- 
rials used  in  the  making  of  liquors  and  to  the 
wage-earners  employed  in  its  manufacture ; 
(2)  to  the  trade  itself  as  profits  and  salaries 
of  dealers,  manufacturers,  distributors  and 
their  employees  who  are  more  or  less  inter- 
ested in  extending  the  business;  (3)  the  share 
for  the  government  as  internal  revenue,  duties, 
taxes,  license  fees  and  fines,  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment alone  receiving  one-fourth  of  its 
entire  income  from  this  one  source. 

In  the  distribution  of  this  $2,000,000,000 
78 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR   HABIT. 

drink  bill  the  first  part,  a  very  small  share, 
goes  to  the  farmer.  The  market  furnished  the 
raiser  of  grains  and  fruits  by  the  distiller  and 
brewer  seems  to  be  a  very  large  one  amount- 
ing in  1905  to  $106,230,000.1  It  is  only  when 
proper  comparisons  are  made  that  it  is  seen 
how  insignificant  actually  is  this  market.  Of 
the  three  staple  cereals  used^  most  abundantly 
in  the  production  of  alcoholic  beverages  in 
that  year  this  trade  purchased,  of  corn, 
34,713,000  bushels,  or  one  and  one-fourth  per 
cent,  of  the  yield ;  of  rye,  it  used  5,595,000 
bushels  or  only  16.8  per  cent  of  the  crop ;  of 
barley,  supposed  to  be  raised  almost  exclu- 
sively for  the  making  of  malt  liquors  the  trade 
called  for  only  60,976,000  bushels,  or  35  per 
cent,  of  what  the  farmers  actually  raised,  while 
65  per  cent,  was  used  for  feeding  cattle  and 
other  purposes.  In  addition  a  great  deal  of 
fruits  of  various  kinds  are  used  in  the  produc- 
tion of  wines  and  the  hop  industry  goes  quite 
largely  to  the  brewer.  But  the  grains  pur- 
chased by  the  liquor  makers  are  often  of 
inferior  grade  and  therefore  do  not  yield  as 
much  profit  to  the  farmer  as  does  the  share 
which  goes  into  the  food  industries  which  he 
supplies. 

The  whole  liquor  business  which  stands  as 
one  of  the  large  industries  of  the  nation,  if 
estimated  by  the  amount  of  capital  invested 
and  the  profits  it  returns,  and  using  for  its 
raw  material,  the  farmer's  out-put  almost 
exclusively,  furnished  a  market  for  only  1.48 
per  cent,  of  the  total  farm  produce  of  the 
country.  Relatively  small  as  this  is  it  would 
be  an  appreciable  source  of  wealth  to  the  agri- 
79 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

culturalist  if  the  sale  of  the  Hquors  manufac- 
tured therefrom  did  not  seriously  cripple  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  consumer  upon  whom 
the  farmer  must  depend  to  use  the  remaining 
share  of  his  produce.  Actually  the  making  of 
a  part  of  the  corn,  rye  and  harley  crop  of  the 
country  into  alcoholic  liquors,  reduces  the 
market,  rather  than  increases  it.  If  the  great 
host  of  people  deprived  of  food  on  account 
of  too  much  drink  had  spent  the  same  money 
for  bread,  meat  and  vegetables,  the  demand 
created  would  have  been  much  greater  since 
it  takes  much  more  of  the  farmer's  products 
to  furnish  $1.00  worth  of  food  than  $1.00 
worth  of  beer. 

A  man  who  drinks  two  glasses  of  beer  per 
day  for  a  year  spends  $36.50;  to  make  it  re- 
quires three  and  three-fourths  bushels  of  bar- 
ley worth  less  than  fifty  cents  per  bushel.^ 
This  amount  of  money,  $36.50,  spent  for  but- 
ter, cheese,  meat  and  woollen  goods,  so  often 
needed  in  the  drinker's  family,  would  have 
raised  prices  for  the  farmer,  made  trade  brisk 
for  all  other  retail  dealers  except  the  saloon- 
keeper, would  have  left  the  ex-beer  drinker  in 
better  health,  so  he  could  have  better  work 
and  would  have  left  something  in  the  home 
after  the  wages  had  been  spent. 

From  a  bushel  of  corn  the  distiller  gets  four 
gallons  of  whisky  which  retails  at  $16.80.  It 
is  divided  up  as  follows,  the  actual  producers 
of  wealth,  the  farmer  and  the  laborer,  getting 
very  meager  shares  indeed : 

The  farmer  gets  for  one  bushel  of  corn. $     .45 

The  United  States  government  gets ....     4.40 

80 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR   HABIT, 

The  railroad  company  gets 80 

The  distiller   gets 3.83 

The  laborer's  share  is , .17 

The  drayman  gets 15 

The  retailer  and  his  employees  get,  . .  .     7.00 

Total   $16.80 

The  liquor  producing  industries  employ 
yearly  about  55,000  men  as  wage-earners,  the 
exact  number  in  1905  being  55,407.^  They 
were  paid  in  wages  $38,201,476,  the  average 
being  slightly  higher  than  that  paid  in  other 
manufacturing  industries.  This  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  only  able  bodied  men  can  be  used 
by  distillers  and  brewers  while  other  industries 
also  employ  a  large  number  of  women  and 
children  at  lower  rates. 

The  actual  number  of  men  furnished  em- 
ployment is  very  small  in  proportion  to  either 
the  amount  of  capital  invested  or  the  value  of 
the  product  turMed  out.  Official  figures*  show 
that  $583,500,000  are  invested  in  the  manu- 
facturing of  distilled,  malt  and  vinous  liquors. 
On  this  labor  gets  only  6  per  cent,  in  payment 
for  its  part  in  production.  In  the  manufac- 
ture of  boots  and  shoes  the  share  is  22  per 
cent.  The  liquor  investment  goes  largely  into 
fixed  property  while  the  profits  are  divided 
chiefly  between  the  owner  and  the  government. 

In  comparison  with  the  value  of  the  product 
the  share  which  goes  to  labor  is  much  smaller 
yet.  Only  1  per  cent,  of  the  total  value  of 
distilled  liquors  is  so  disposed  of ;  in  beer  mak- 
ing the  share  is  a  little  larger,  5  per  cent. ;  an 
average  in  the  great  liquor  industries  of  3  per 

81 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

cent.  This  means  that  when  $1.00  worth  of 
intoxicants  are  produced  for  consumption 
labor  gets  3  cents  of  it,  the  producer  of  mate- 
rials used  gets  20  cents  and  the  government 
and  the  manufacturer  the  rest.  By  the  time 
it  reaches  the  consumer,  the  dealer's  profits, 
transportation,  taxes  and  Hcense  fees  have 
doubled  or  trebled  its  value  and  the  laborer's 
and  farmer's  shares  are  proportionately  re- 
duced. 

"According  to  the  census  figures  the  ratio 
of  wages  paid  to  the  value  of  production  in 
liquor  manufacturing  has  dropped,  in  the  case 
of  distilled  liquors  from  .069  in  1850  to  .017 
in  1900,  and  in  the  case  of  malt  liquors  from 
.15  in  1860  to  .10  in  1900."«  Which  shows 
that  the  centralizing  and  monopolizing  in  the 
industry  has  greatly  reduced  the  call  for  labor. 

As  compared  with  the  share  which  goes  to 
the  wage-earner  in  other  producing  industries 
liquor  makes  the  following  poor  showing: 

$5.00  worth  of  boots  and  shoes  pays  labor.$1.12 

$5.00  worth  of  bread  pays  labor 89 

$5.00  worth  of  clothing  pays  labor 1.10 

$5.00  worth  of  furniture  pays  labor 1.18 

$5.00   worth    of    average    products   pavs 
labor \.     .88 


$5.00  worth  of  distilled  liquors  pays  labor.$  .05 
$5.00  worth  of  malt  liquors  pays  labor.  .  .      .25 

Twenty-five  dollars  spent  for  necessary 
articles  stimulates  business,  contributes  $4.40 
to  labor,  creates  a  demand  for  more  labor  and 
brings  valuable  supplies  to  the  family.  Twen- 
ty-five dollars  spent  for  liquors  gives  labor  75 
82 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

cents  worth  of  employment,  reduces  the  de- 
mand for  other  articles  and  interferes  with  the 
earning  capacity  of  the  laborer.  Liquor  is 
certainly  labor's  worst  enemy. 

Illinois,  with  Peoria  as  its  whisky  capitol, 
has  out-whiskied  Kentucky  and  become  the 
champion  distilled  liquor  state  of  the  world. 
More  capital  is  invested,  more  men  employed 
and  more  revenue  paid  the  government  than 
from  any  other  state.  Yet  this  business  on 
which  the  Federal  government  depends  for 
27.6  per  cent,  of  its  entire  income,  and  which 
impresses  the  public  as  so  gigantic  an  indus- 
try, was  represented  by  only  73  proprietors  in 
the  state  of  its  greatest  strength,  according  to 
the  Census  figures  of  1900;  it  employed  only 
681  clerks  and  4,006  wage-earners.  In  the 
same  year  the  manufacturers  of  agricultural 
implements  in  that  state  employed  the  labor 
of  seven  times  as  many  clerks  and  officials 
and  four  and  one-half  times  as  many  wage- 
earners.  The  making  of  bicycles  required  as 
many  men  while  "the  boot  and  shoe  business 
surpassed  the  liquor  business,  both  in  number 
of  wage-earners  employed  and  in  the  amount 
of  wages  paid ;  the  building  of  carriages  stood 
about  equal  while  that  of  building  cars  was 
substantially  three  times  as  great.  The  furni- 
ture business  was  substantially  twice  as  great 
as  the  making  of  liquors  and  the  business  of 
the  foundries  and  machine  shops  six  times 
as  great. "^ 

The  Consequential  Cost,  or  the  destruction 
caused  by  drink.  This  second  great  series  of 
financial  burdens  cast  upon  society  is  the  most 
extensive    and    furnishes    the    least    adequate 

83 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

compensation  of  any  that  may  be  charged 
directly  or  remotely  to  alcohol.  The  first  cost, 
into  which  three  values  enter,  (1)  that  of  the 
materials  used  and  labor  employed;  (2)  the 
profits  to  the  trade,  manufacturing,  distributing 
and  retail,  and  salaries  paid  employees  more  or 
less  interested  in  the  business,  and  (3)  the  part 
taken  by  government,  is  about  equal  to  the 
annual  drink  bill  of  two  billion  dollars.  It  is 
largely  a  dead  loss ;  but  it  is  also  partly  a  re- 
turn to  society  in  wages  and  payment  for  mate- 
rials and  taxes,  and  in  social  pleasure,  of  the 
immense  amount  of  cash  abstracted  from  the 
pockets  of  the  most  ill-affording  classes  by  a 
vicious  and  abnormal  appetite  and  the  trade 
which  caters  to  and  promotes  it. 

But  for  the  second  series  of  losses  there  is  no 
compensation.  The  alcohol  burden  is  not  mere- 
ly a  loss  of  time  and  materials  used  in  its  pro- 
duction and  their  withdrawal  from  wealth-pro- 
ducing industries  which  might  have  added  to 
the  total  economic  advancement  of  the  com- 
munity. Its  extensive  use  is  followed  by  addi- 
tional and  positively  destructive  loss  in  the  ex- 
isting total  of  wealth  which  can  be  compared 
only  with  the  improper  consumption  of  poisons 
for  such  purposes  as  suicide,  or  the  willful  or 
careless  wrecking  of  railroad  trains.  It  causes 
an  actual  destruction  of  life,  producing  capa- 
city, time,  energy  and  wealth.  Further,  it  re- 
quires that  society  shall  support  in  idleness 
and  inefficiency  its  crop  of  dependents,  insane, 
epileptic  and  other  defectives  and  criminals. 
The  second  series  of  social  losses  results  from 
the  consumption  of  liquor ;  the  first  occurs  in 
its  production. 

84 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

The  direct  social  welfare  burden  is  about  as 

follows : 

1.  Loss  of  time  and  capacity. 

2.  Loss  of  life,  directly  and  indirectly. 

3.  Deterioration  of  personal  capacity ;  its 
relation  to  poverty  and  pauperism. 

4.  Expense  in  care  and  support  of  tfie 
product. 

1.  The  muscular  energy,  nerve  force,  judg- 
ment and  will  power  of  a  million  moderate 
drinkers  is  seriously  lowered  each  year  by 
their  personal  use  of  alcoholic  liquors.  Prof. 
Hopkins  has  estimated  the  loss  in  time  at  10 
per  cent.,  or  the  equivalent  of  full  time  for 
100,000  men.i  At  $600  per  year  salary  the 
time  loss  alone  foots  up  to  $60,000,000.  There 
are  also  about  2,500,000  hard  drinkers,  as 
estimated  by  Wheeler,  which  lose  practically 
full  time.^  The  actual  loss  in  producing  time 
and  capacity  here  is  very  great  but  being  more 
or  less  hypothetical,  can  not  be  closely  esti- 
mated. That  it  is  a  concrete  tangible  waste 
of  great  economic  import,  is  demonstrated  by 
the  fact  that,  according  to  the  U.  S.  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  reports,^  96  per  cent,  of  rail- 
roads, 79  per  cent,  of  manufacturers,  88  per 
cent,  of  trades  and  72  per  cent,  of  agricul- 
turalists discriminate  to  some  extent  against 
applicants  for  labor  addicted  to  the  use  of 
liquors,  and  many  of  them  refuse  to  employ 
hard  drinkers  at  all.  The  reasons  given  are 
"to  guard  against  accidents,"  "on  account  of 
responsibility,"  etc. 

2.  The  number  of  lives  sacrificed  yearly  to 
Bacchus  cannot  be  given  positively  and  can 
scarcely  even  be  estimated.     Those  who  die 

85 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

from  alcoholism  are  credited  in  the  Census 
reports  as  being  less  than  one  per  cent. ;  but 
physicians  seldom  charge  a  death  to  that  cause, 
on  account  of  the  wishes  of  friends,  when  any 
other  can  be  assigned.  Secret  investigations 
by  medical  men  show  that  at  least  3  per  cent, 
of  deaths  should  be  so  charged.  But  the  large 
number  are  those  who  die  violent  deaths 
through  their  own  intemperance  or  that  of 
someone  else,  in  murders  and  fights  and  sui- 
cides ;  the  heavy  loss  due  to  accidents  by 
drunken  employees  of  railroads,  street  cars, 
factories,  etc. ;  minor  accidents  which  would 
not  have  proved  fatal  without  drink ;  the  in- 
temperance of  others  causing  dependent  chil- 
dren to  die  of  insufficient  care  and  nutrition ; 
wives  of  drunkards  whose  lives  have  been 
gradually  worn  out ; — altogether  constitute  a 
bill  of  death  chargeable  to  intemperance  ex- 
ceedingly great,  and  as  inexcusable  as  it  is 
without  compensation  to  either  the  dead  or  the 
living,  or  to  society  who  must  bear  the  burden. 
Positive  figures  on  such  items  can  be  only 
fragmentary  at  best. 

It  is  said  that  100,000  drinkers  die  each 
year.  Wheeler,^  late  Editor  of  the  Literary 
Digest,  basing  his  estimates  on  investigations 
of  the  British  Medical  Association,  and  apply- 
ing them  to  America,  says  that  of  the  120,000 
hard  drinkers  who  die  each  year,  30,000  owe 
their  death  directly  to  their  intemperance ;  as 
many  more  children  and  dependents  die  on 
account  of  negligence,  cruelty  and  transmitted 
defects.  Prof.  Jos.  V.  Collins  shows  by  care- 
ful investigations  that  3  per  cent,  of  the  total 

86 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

deaths  per  year  are  due  directly  to  it  and  7 
per  cent,  more  indirectly. 

During  the  first  45  days  of  1908  a  careful 
collection  of  newspaper  reports  shows  that  in 
the  one  law-abiding  representative  state  of 
Minnesota,  with  a  large  rural  population,  and 
therefore  relatively  free  from  crime,  there 
were  52  persons  killed  while  drunk,  or  by  a 
drunken  man,  or  who  committed  suicide  on 
account  of  drink.  The  same  proportion  the 
year  around  would  give  Minnesota  420  violent 
deaths  due  to  drink  alone.  Throughout  the 
United  States  it  would  be  13,900  per  year. 
This  does  not  include  the  immensely  larger 
number  whose  demise  is  traceable  to  liquor  by 
way  of  alcoholism,  sickness  induced  by  drink 
or  resulting  poverty  or  by  dependence  upon 
drinking  bread  earners.  As  an  estimate  of 
the  violent  deaths  it  is  probably  too  low  since 
the  newspapers  are  often  financially  interested 
in  suppressing  the  facts  tending  to  show  liquor 
as  a  prominent  cause. 

Life  insurance  figures  indicate  that  "those 
who  become  intemperate  after  the  age  of 
twenty-flve  years  lose,  on  the  average,  ten 
years  out  of  the  thirty-five  they  would  other- 
wise have  to  live  and  that  the  free  drinkers 
lose  five  years  out  of  the  thirty-five."* 

But  the  death  of  a  drunkard  is  a  social  bene- 
fit rather  than  a  loss.  How  great,  then,  must 
have  been  the  positive  public  loss  when, 
through  drink,  he  became,  not  merely  a  use- 
less burden  but  an  actual  negative  quantity 
in  economic  welfare? 

The  cost  of  a  man  to  society  at  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  if  fairly  educated,  has  been 
87 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

placed  at  $2,000.^  The  value  of  the  invest- 
ment is  fixed  by  his  earning  capacity.  If  that 
is  $300  per  year,  or  $1.00  per  day,  he  is  worth 
$5,000,  the  interest  on  this  amounting  at  six 
per  cent,  to  his  yearly  earnings.  A  man  with 
an  earning  capacity  of  $600  on  the  same  basis 
is  worth  $10,000;  one  who  earns  $1,200  is 
worth  $20,000.  With  such  figures  at  hand  it 
would  be  an  instructive  experiment  to  esti- 
mate the  loss  to  a  definite  community  in  earn- 
ing capacity  and  time,  and  the  burden  of  sup- 
port thrown  upon  it  tlirough  the  saloons  of 
that  community.  The  social  fact  is  that  the 
impairment  of  a  man  is  the  destruction  of 
wealth  and  that  no  man  or  trade  has  the  right 
to  destroy  the  economic  worth  of  a  community 
or  state. 

3.  Relation  of  Liquor  to  Poverty. — Intem- 
perance is  generally  regarded  as  an  important, 
if  not  the  chief,  source  of  poverty  and  pauper- 
ism as  well  as  of  the  conditions  that  lead  to 
them.  Intemperance  and  poverty  are  mutually 
cause  and  effect ;  men  take  to  drink  to  drown 
the  sorrows  and  sufferings  of  the  loss  of  prop- 
erty, or  to  gain  a  temporary  escape  from  the 
thralldom  of  a  poverty  that  has  been  life-long^yt- 
On  the  other  hand  excessive  use  of  drink  has 
always  been  one  of  the  great  sources  of  desti- 
tution ;  even  when  drink  can  be  said  to  be  the 
result,  rather  than  the  first  cause,  it  is  the 
aggravating  source  of  further  deterioration 
and  an  effectual  bar  to  recovery  from  the  sub- 
mergency.  At  best  it  is  a  vicious  circle  of 
action  and  reaction ;  drink  is  an  active  first 
cause  of  poverty ;  poverty,  finds  relief  in  drink. 
Stop  the  drink  and  a  chief  source  of  poverty 
88 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

will  be  removed ;  remove  all  poverty  and  in- 
temperance will  flourish  as  before,  since  there 
is  more  drinking  during  a  period  of  prosperity 
than  during  hard  times. 

The  actual  figures  showing  drink  as  cause 
are  not  so  large  as  have  been  at  times  sup- 
posed. The  Committee  of  Fifty  has  made  one 
of  the  most  careful  and  extensive  investiga- 
tions ;  it  gives  drink  as  producing  25  per  cent, 
of  poverty,  37  per  cent,  of  the  pauperism 
within  almshouses  and  45  per  cent,  of  the 
destitution  of  children  as  due  directly  to  the 
personal  use  of  liquors  or  to  their  use  by 
someone  else.  But  the  Committee  is  very  con- 
servative, not  attributing  any  case  to  drink 
"unless  it  was  obviously  the  principle  and  de- 
termining cause."^  Prof.  A.  G.  Warner  at- 
tributes 28.1  per  cent,  as  due  to  it  directly  and 
as  a  contributory  cause.  In  London  Mr. 
Charles  Booth  found  25  per  cent  out  of  1,447 
cases  chargeable  to  drink.^  The  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Statistics  investigations  are 
very  reliable  and  cover  a  large  number  of 
cases  and  conditions  fairly  average  in  Amer- 
ica ;  this  report  shows  39.44  per  cent,  of  pov- 
erty due  to  personal  use  of  alcoholics  and  5 
per  cent,  more  to  its  use  by  others,  a  total  of 
44.44  per  cent.' 

But  it  is  not  among  paupers  that  alcohol 
gets  in  its  worst  work.  A  vast  host  of  people, 
just  on  the  verge  of  becoming  dependents, 
who  support  themselves  but  never  lay  aside 
a  cent  for  the  future,  were  brought  there  and 
are  held  there  because  of  the  margin  of  wages 
that  goes  to  the  saloon.  They  might  have  been 
financially  successful  and  even  been  able  to 

89 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

buy  a  little  home  if  it  were  not  for  the  exces- 
sive drink  burden  they  bear.  "The  ravages 
of  intemperance  are  most  plainly  to  be  traced 
in  classes  distinctly  above  the  pauper  class. 
It  is  among  artisans  and  those  capable  of  earn- 
ing good  wages  that  the  most  energy  is  spent 
for  alcohol  and  the  most  vitality  burned  out."* 
Mr.  Booth  well  summarizes  the  needless  share 
that  drink  had  in  poverty  as  follows :  "Of 
drink  in  all  its  combinations,  adding  to  every 
trouble,  undermining  every  effort  for  good, 
destroying  the  home,  and  cursing  the  young 
lives  of  children,  the  stories  tell  enough.  It 
does  not  stand  as  apparent  chief  cause  in  as 
many  cases  as  sickness  and  old  age ;  but  if  it 
were  not  for  drink,  sickness  and  old  age  could 
be  better  met."^ 

4.  The  Burden  in  Care  and  Support. — The 
heaviest  burden  cast  by  drink  upon  society  and 
the  individual,  the  cost  in  money  and  capacity 
to  those  just  above  the  line  of  dependence, 
cannot  even  be  estimated.  It  is  the  earner  of 
good  wages  that  suffers  most  and  who,  thus 
saving  nothing,  is  ready  when  overtaken  by 
a  slight  misfortune  or  sickness,  to  drop  below. 
This  burden  on  the  individual,  on  the  family 
and  on  society  must  certainly  be  greater  than 
the  more  direct  one  caused  by  actual  poverty 
and  pauperism.  Being  paid  through  the  ordi- 
nary channels  of  business,  in  reduced  earning 
and  consuming  capacity,  it  is  not  noticed  as 
are  the  more  direct  burdens  paid  through 
taxation  and  philanthropy. 

The  burden  of  care  and  support  of  the  nor- 
mal, average  product  of  the  saloon,  the  share 
of  crime,  and  poverty  that  legitimately  may  be 
90 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR   HABIT. 

charged  to  it — the  building,  equipping,  main- 
taining and  support  of  the  necessary  storage 
granaries,  such  as  jails,  penitentiaries,  insane 
asylums,  hospitals  for  inebriates,  epileptics  and 
other  defectives,  compose  a  withering  answer 
to  the  self-centered  man's  claim  that  "if  you 
let  drink  alone  it  will  let  you  alone." 

(1)  Society  has  long  regarded  it  as  a  primary 
duty  to  erect  institutions  to  care  for  those  who 
have  no  means  or  capacity  for  self-support  or 
whose  friends  can  not  provide  for  them.  It 
is  government's  first  crude  and  most  neces- 
sary form  of  philanthropy.  Poorhouses  and 
asylums,  homes  for  defectives  and  incurables 
are  supported  by  impartial  taxation  on  citizens 
who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  liquor  business, 
the  source  of  so  much  of  the  burden,  and 
those  who  are  free  from  it.  A  large  part  of 
the  cost  is  borne  by  private,  church  and  other 
philanthropic  organizations,  but  in  any  case 
the  public  always  pays  the  bill.  A  very  care- 
ful estimate  of  the  share  undoubtedly  charge- 
able to  drink,  using  the  more  conservative 
percentages  of  the  total  cost  of  such  institu- 
tions in  1903  in  each  case  has  been  made  by 
Prof.  Collins  as  follows : 

Hospitals,  40%  due  to  liquor.  . .  .$  4,000,000 
Insane  Asylums,  35%  due  to  liquor  5,500,000 
Feeble  Minded,  45%  due  to  liquor  5,400,000 
Alms  Houses,  Z7%  due  to  liquor.  3,200,000 
Public  Ohphan  Homes,  46%  due  to 

liquor 4,100,000 

Outdoor     Relief     30.5%     due     to 

liquor    12,000,000 

Private    Charity,    30.5%     due    to 

liquor   30,500,000 

91 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  total  actual  cost  of  this  portion  of  the 
drink  product  alone  is  $64,700,000.  Besides 
this  is  the  immense  private  burden  borne  by 
families  and  by  the  children  of  drinkers  and 
drunkards,  amounting  to  not  less  than  $220,- 
000,000. 

(2)  The  hunting  down  and  prosecution  of 
prisoners  is  a  gigantic  task  and  a  proportion- 
ate cost.  To  provide  for  public  safety  is  a 
first  purpose  of  government.  Yet  in  the 
twentieth  century  the  scientific  method  would 
seem  to  be  to  get  at  the  chief  cause  and  save 
the  criminal  rather  than  to  continue  following 
the  ancient  semi-barbaric  one  of  punishment 
as  retaliation.  On  the  average  at  least  50  per 
cent,  of  crime,  large  and  petty,  is  due  to  liquor 
and  its  sale  and  use.  The  testimonies  of 
judges,  police  officials,  keepers  of  peniten- 
tiaries, reformatories  and  bridewells  place  it 
at  from  60  to  90  per  cent.,  the  average  being 
about  75  per  cent.  It  varies  with  localities 
and  with  the  character  of  criminals  sent  to  the 
respective  institutions.  A  broad  investigation 
made  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty  puts  liquor 
as  "first  cause"  in  31  per  cent. of  the  cases;  as 
"sole  cause"  in  16  per  cent.,  or  a  total  of  49.95 
per  cent,  as  due  to  liquor  in  various  forms  and 
combinations.  The  Massachusetts  Labor  Bu- 
reau investigation  gets  almost  an  identical 
result,  50.88  per  cent.  But  these  are  both  very 
conservative  estimates  while  the  actual  share 
so  chargeable  in  our  large  cities  is  undoubt- 
edly much  larger. 

Taking,  then,  one-half  of  the  cost  of  police 
and  constables,  necessary  to  catch  criminals, 
of  courts  to  try  them,  of  jails  and  peniten- 
98 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

tiaries  in  which  to  confine  them  and  of  other 
precautions  necessary  to  guard  against  crime 
we  have  as  the  share  justly  chargeable  to  the 
account  of  the  liquor  dealer  and  seller  a  bill 
of  about  $40,000,000  yearly.  In  Maine  in  1906, 
with  its  prohibitory  laws  only  fairly  well  en- 
forced, there  was  one  commitment  to  prison 
for  every  12,860  of  the  population.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, with  saloons  in  most  of  the  cities 
and  many  towns,  there  was  one  for  every  788 
of  the  population,  the  whole  cost  of  justice 
and  punishment  being  proportionately  in- 
creased. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  American  Drink  BiU. 

Barker,    "The    Saloon    Problem    and    Social    Re- 
form," 7-9. 

American  Prohibition  Year  Book  (1907),  40-42. 

Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 
499-500. 

'Statistical  Abstract  of  the  U.  S.   (1906),  687. 

^Statistical  Abstract  of  the  U.  S.   (1906),  530. 

'American  Prohibition  Year  Book  (1907),  41. 

*  American  Grocer,  May  8,  1907. 
The  First  Cost  in  the  Drink  BiU. 

Fehlandt,  "  A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  207-218. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  81-97. 

Committee    of    Fifty,    Summary    of    "The    Liquor 
Problem,"  104-107. 

Patton,     "The    Economic    Basis    of     Prohibition," 
Annals  American  Academy,  Vol.   II,  59. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
4-10. 

American   Prohibition  Year  Book    (1907),  44-48. 

National  Prohibitionist,  January  30  and  February 
20,  1908. 

Fernald,  "The  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  14-16. 
98 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

^  Compiled  from  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Inter- 
nal Revenue  and  Statistical  Abstract  for  1906 
by  Mr.  Ferguson  in  "The  National  Prohibi- 
tionist," January  30,   1908. 

2  "American   Prohibition   Year  Book"   for   1907,  46. 

3  Statistical  Abstract,  1906,  504-505. 
^  Same. 

5  National  Prohibitionist,  "Drink's  Exhibit  A," 
January  30,   1908. 

^  National  Prohibitionist,  "  In  the  Balances,"  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1908. 

The  Consequential  Cost. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  214-216. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
12-14. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  57-76. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  98-105. 

Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem," 229-239. 

American  Prohibition  Year  Book,  1907,  32-33. 

Fernald,  "The  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  20-31, 
358-377. 

Whittaker,  "Alcoholic  Beverages  and  Longevity," 
Contemporary  for  March,  1904. 

Patton,  "The  Economic  Basis  of  Prohibition," 
Annals  American  Academy,  Vol.  II,  59. 

Stelzel,  "The  Workingman  and  Social  Problems," 
chap.  3. 

1  Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  98. 

2  Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  66. 

3  Twelfth  Annual  Report,  71. 

4  Wheeler,  63. 

5  Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  102. 

The  Relation  of  Liquor  to  Poverty. 

Kclynack,  "The  Drink   Problem,"   199-208. 

Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  to  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem," 96-98,  120-125. 

Warner,  "American  Charities,"  60-63. 

Summary  Committee  of  Fifty,  89-104,   108-121. 

^  Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem," 96,  120,  130. 

2  Booth,  "Pauperism  and  the  Endowment  of  Old 
Age." 

94 


PUBLIC  COST  OF  THE  LIQUOR  HABIT. 

3  Twenty-Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Statistics  of 

Labor,  507. 
*  Warner,  "American   Charities,"  61. 

The  Burden  in  Care  and  Support. 

Keren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem." 
Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

14-16. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  214-216. 
Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  106-114. 
Fernald,  "The  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  21-31. 


96 


CHAPTER  VI. 

INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR 
PROBLEM. 

National  Wealth  and  Social  Welfare. — 
Financial  prosperity  is  necessary  both  to  in- 
dividual and  national  welfare.  It  is  one  of  the 
chief  conditions  of  success.  Even  ahead  of 
health,  intellectual  culture  and  moral  prog- 
ress it  stands  as  a  chief  aim  of  every  man 
and  of  every  organized  society  of  men.  Each 
individual  must  have  a  certain  amount  of 
wealth  to  be  able  to  be  and  do  his  best.  The 
liquor  habit  in  the  individual  and  the  liquor 
traffic  in  the  nation  strike  at  the  very  basis  of 
the  economic  welfare  of  society  by  causing 
waste  of  wealth-producing  capacity  as  well  as 
of  wealth  itself. 

I.  The  wealth-producing  capacity  of  the 
community.  Every  industry  should  produce, 
add  to  the  sum  total  of  the  possessions  of  so- 
ciety or  contribute  to  the  distribution  of  those 
possessions.  It  should  take  the  raw  product 
and  make  it  into  something  that  will  be  worth 
more  to  the  consumer  than  that  raw  product 
itself.  The  liquor  factory  takes  grains  and 
fruits,  valuable  for  food,  which,  by  their  con- 
sumption yield  work-power  and  make  men 
capable  of  producing  more,  and  gives,  in  turn, 
an  article  which  has  the  very  opposite  effects. 

96 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Not  only  is  the  health-g-iving  value  of  the  food 
lost  when  alcohol  is  formed  but  the  wealth 
creating  power  of  the  consumer  is  reduced  in 
proportion  to  the  frequency  and  amount  he 
takes.  The  distillery  and  brewery  waste  pub- 
lic wealth  instead  of  adding  to  it.  This  trade 
causes  improper  distribution ;  takes  legitimate 
wealth  out  of  the  hands  of  its  producer,  the 
working  man,  and  puts  it  into  the  hands  of 
the  brewer,  the  producer  of  false  wealth.  The 
liquor  traffic  wastes  natural  resources ;  as  Pro- 
fessor Patton  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania shows,  "Two  temperance  people  Cjan  be 
supported  on  the  land  needed  to  satisfy  the 
coarse  tastes  of  one  regular  frequenter  of  the 
saloon."* 

2.  Intelligent  and  sober  labor  is  an  essential 
to  an  increase  in  public  wealth.  It  is  labor  that 
produces ;  the  value  of  its  intelligence,  reliabil- 
ity and  soberness  as  factors  in  this  producton 
cannot  be  overestimated.  The  use  of  liquor 
injures  every  one  of  those  qualities  of  man- 
hood which  belong  to  every  wealth-producing 
citizen.  "An  economic  millennium  would  be 
an  epoch  in  which  there  was  no  waste  .  .  . 
above  all,  no  waste  of  health,  substance  and 
self-respect  in  drunkenness  and  its  attending 
vices."  The  temperate  laborer,  as  well  as  the 
intemperate  workman,  himself,  and  the  gen- 
eral public,  must  sufifer  because  of  drunken 
labor. 

3.  A  healthful  interrelation  of  all  industries. 
No  one  business  should  thrive  at  the  expense 
of  others,  or  feed  on  the  evil  tendencies  or 
vices  of  the  public  as  does  the  liquor  traffic. 

97 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  oversupply  of  the  market  and  consequent 
inabiHty  to  effect  sales  is  a  very  frequent  com- 
plaint of  manufacturers.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  oversupply  so  long  as  there  is  such 
crying  poverty,  distress  and  need  on  every 
hand.  There  cannot  be  an  oversupply  of  boots 
and  shoes  while  tens  of  thousands  of  drinking 
men  and  their  families  go  with  ragged  shoes 
or  none  at  all.  The  current  period  of  prosper- 
ity is  a  farce  to  thousands  of  suffering  people. 
It  is  a  case  of  under-consumption  coupled  with 
improper  distribution,  largely  chargeable  to 
such  destructive  habits  as  drink  and  such 
wasteful  trades  as  the  liquor  traffic.  "From 
the  standpoint  of  the  community,"  says  the 
economist,  Hobson,  "nothing  else  than  a  rise 
in  the  average  standard  of  current  consump- 
tion can  stimulate  industry.'"  That  business 
which  injures  and  destroys  those  who  use  its 
product  is  an  absolute  obstruction  to  the  pros- 
perity and  success  of  every  other  business.  It 
is  not  a  legitimate  business. 

Industrial  Prohibition. — The  recent  move- 
ment among  many  of  the  largest  and  most 
prosperous  industrial  enterprises  for  temper- 
ance on  the  part  of  their  employes  is  of  tre- 
mendous significance.  Among  railroads  and 
many  large  retail  and  department  stores,  man- 
ufacturing plants  and  other  establishments  the 
rules  requiring  total  abstinence  from  the  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors  are  becoming  more  and 
more  severe  at  the  same  time  that  they  are 
extending  from  one  industry  to  another. 

Such  business  houses  as  Marshall  Field  & 
Co.  of  Chicago,  who  claim  to  have  the  largest 

88 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

store  in  the  world,  will  not  permit  any  of  their 
thousands  of  employes  to  drink  either  in  pubHc 
or  private,  frequent  places  where  liquor  is  sold, 
or  even  associate  with  those  who  drink.  Many 
of  the  great  railroads  of  the  country  have  such 
stringent  rules  against  drinking,  or  entering 
saloons  as  to  amount  to  discharge  for  a  single 
oflFense.  A  vast  number  of  other  enterprises 
have  more  or  less  stringent  rules. 

This  movement  means  nothing  less  than  in- 
dustrial prohibition.  The  command  is  decisive 
and  absolute.  There  must  be  no  drinking  or 
business  relations  cease.  It  is  more  severe  and 
far-reaching  than  legal  prohibition ;  the  latter 
applies  only  to  the  manufacturer  and  the  seller, 
the  social  acts ;  industrial  prohibition  applies 
directly  to  the  use,  the  individual  and  personal 
acts. 

The  purpose  is,  of  course,  purely  economic. 
It  is  because  higher  moral  qualities  pay  that 
morality  is  encouraged  or  required.  This  rea- 
son may  be  analyzed  into  three  points:  (i) 
The  total  abstainer  is  worth  more  to  the  com- 
pany than  the  man  who  drinks;  (2)  he  will 
take  better  care  of  the  property  placed  in  his 
hands  ;  (3)  in  the  case  of  transportation  he  will 
take  better  care  of  the  lives  of  passengers.  It 
is  the  suits  for  damages  that  railroads  fear  as 
a  result  of  accidents  that  makes  them  value  so 
much  the  lives  of  the  public. 

The  American  Railway  Association,  which 
covers  160,000  of  the  202,000  miles  of  main 
track  in  the  United  States  and  employs  over 
1,189,000  men,  has  fixed,  as  its  minimum  re- 
quirement, the  absolute  prohibition  of  the  usie 

99 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

of  liquors  of  any  kind  while  on  duty,  and  for- 
bids habitual  use  or  the  frequenting  of  places 
where  liquors  are  sold.  Most  of  the  largest 
companies,  under  this  Association,  have  gone 
far  beyond  this  requirement  and  absolutely 
forbid  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  of  any 
kind  at  any  time.  "The  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  found  that  90%  of  railways, 
79%  of  manufacturers.  88%  of  trades  and 
^2%  of  agriculturists  discriminate  against  em- 
ployes addicted  to  the  beverage  use  of  intoxi- 
cants. The  great  barrier  to  wage-earners  in 
general  and  to  the  elevation  of  young  men  in 
business  in  particular  is  the  drink  habit."* 

Nations  whose  laboring  classes  are  relative- 
ly sober  are  progressing;  those  where  they 
drink  are  falling  behind.  Great  Britain  is  be- 
coming aroused  to  the  fact  that  the  United 
States  is  getting  ahead  of  her  commerciallv. 
One  London  paper,  searching  for  causes,  finds 
a  chief  one  in  drunken  labor.  One  shipyard 
suffered  in  one  year  an  injury  of  25  per  cent 
in  its  output  due  to  drunkenness.  The  writer 
concludes:  "If  we  are  not  able  to  produce 
better,  faster  and  cheaper  than  other  countries, 
our  rivals  will  come  and  capture  our  trade." 
It  is  claimed  by  a  careful  student  of  the  sub- 
ject'^ that  one  important  factor  in  the  relative 
advancement  of  American  industries  is  the 
widespread  system  of  temperance  instruction 
in  our  public  schools. 

Liquor  and   the  Length  of   Life. — The  late 

Dr.  Willard   Parker,  the  eminent  surgeon  of 

New  York,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  ZVA% 

of  all  the  deaths  in  New  York  City  were  oc- 

100 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

casioned  directly  or  indirectly  by  the  use  of 
alcoholic  drinks.  There  is  remarkable  unan- 
imity among  those  who  have  made  a  careful 
investigation  of  the  problem  that  "a  minimum 
proportion  of  deaths  caused  by  alcohol  is  io%. 
As  there  were  i,039-094  deaths  in  the  census 
year  1900,  that  would  make  about  100,000  as 
alcohol's  share.'"  This  estimate,  while  conser- 
vatively made,  is  so  very  high  that  v/e  lose 
little  in  effect  Ijy  dividing  it  in  half  and  giving 
50,000  as  the  annual  life  sacrifice  in  America 
to  the  god  Bacchus. 

Thousands  of  these  are  men  cut  off  in  their 
prime  by  the  most  unnecessary  of  causes.  The 
average  age  of  life  is  a  little  over  thirty-five 
years ;  drinking  men,  whether  they  die  on  ac- 
count of  excess  or  accident  due  to  drink,  or  to 
natural  causes,  die  much  younger,  on  the  aver- 
age. These  are  the  years  when  a  man  is  at 
his  best.  Each  year  of  labor  at  this  period  will 
add  more  to  the  wealth  of  the  community  than 
at  any  other  time.  In  this  connection  it  is  well 
to  note  the  relation  of  drink  to  those  who 
enter  the  business  and  to  those  who  use  it. 

William  Farr  in  Vital  Statistics,  an  author- 
ity on  the  subject,  shows  that  the  saloonkeeper 
has  the  most  unhealthful  of  all  trades.  There 
may  be  minor  branches  of  work  of  extraordi- 
nary character,  such  as  deep-sea  diving  or 
making  trips  to  the  north  pole,  which  are  more 
destructive  of  life,  but  as  a  regular  trade  em- 
ploying vast  numbers  of  men,  that  of  liquor 
selling  stands  lowest.  Of  1,000  each  of  the 
following  classes,  there  died  within  a  fixed 
length  of  time,  farmers  363,  grocers  383,  la- 
id 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

borers  442,  and  saloonkeepers  and  their  assist- 
ants 605.  This  places  saloonkeepers  as  having 
the  highest  and  day  laborers  as  second  highest 
rate  of  mortality. 

The  relative  length  of  life  enjoyed  by  drink- 
ers and  total  abstainers  is  best  shown  by  the 
statistics  gathered  by  the  United  Kingdom 
Temperance  and  General  Provident  Institu- 
tion of  London/  Its  records  extend  back  for 
sixty  years  and  embrace  all  classes  of  people 
that  are  usually  accepted  as  insurance  risks. 
The  reports  of  American  companies  of  recent 
years  begin  to  show  the  same  advantages  to 
the  abstainer  but  they  are  too  recent  to  have 
anything  like  the  value  of  the  English  figures. 
In  1 841  the  United  Kingdom  Company  estab- 
lished its  separate  section  for  total  abstainers. 
In  the  40  years,  from  1865  to  1905,  the  per- 
centage of  actual  deaths  to  expected  deaths  in 
the  temperance  section  was  71.52;  in  the  gen- 
eral section,  including  both  moderate  drinkers 
and  non-drinkers  94%  of  the  expected  deaths 
actually  occurred.  This  tremendous  difference 
in  favor  of  the  abstainers  would  have  bc^n 
much  greater  had  all  in  the  general  section 
been  users  of  intoxicants.  The  difference  is 
especially  marked  in  the  active  working  years 
between  the  ages  of  25  and  60  years.  This 
total  abstinence  section  was  founded  at  a  time 
when  people  who  refrained  were  thought  to 
be  dangerous  risks  since  they  were  so  very 
exceptional.  The  Scepter  Life  Association, 
another  English  Company,  in  22  years  exper- 
ience shows  actual  deaths  in  the  general  sec- 
tion to  be  79.53%  of  the  expected,  while  in 

103 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

the  temperance  section  they  were  54.25%.  It 
is  evident  that  as  time  goes  on  there  will  be 
a  more  and  more  marked  difference  in  the 
longevity  of  drinkers  and  total  abstainers. 
The  sons  of  abstainers  insuring  in  the  temper- 
ance section  will  fare  better  than  their  fathers, 
many  of  whom,  while  abstainers  themselves, 
were  the  children  of  drinkers,  thus  inheriting 
lessened  vitality.  In  other  words,  the  increased 
vitality  resulting  from  temperance  will  begin 
to  show  itself  in  yet  longer  life. 

The  Economic  Demands  for  Prohibition. — 
Ordinarily  the  "first  purpose"  of  government 
in  America  which  is  most  sacredly  fulfilled  is 
the  guarding  of  wealth.  People  are  interested 
in  the  regulation  of  property,  and  require  that 
such  laws  shall  be  enforced  even  while  those 
relating  to  morals,  or  even  to  public  health, 
are  permitted  to  become  dead  letters.  Most 
liquor  regulations  have  been  passed  in  the  in- 
terests of  morality  and  safety,  aiming  to  com- 
promise between  the  apparent  need  of  protect- 
ing liquor  property  and  the  obvious  duty  of 
restricting  the  evils  of  intemperance.  In  pass- 
ing regulation  laws  government  has  failed  to 
recognize  the  source  of  the  difficulty ;  it  needs 
to  know  that  public  wealth,  no  less  than  public 
morality  and  health,  call  for  severe  action  in 
regard  to  this  social  evil ;  that  prohibition  is 
necessary  economically  no  less  than 
morally. 

The  first  cost  in  the  whole  economic  burden 
cast  upon  society  by  intemperance  and  the 
"grafting"  trade  that  supplies  the  necessary 
means  to  intemperance,  the  retail  bill  of  ap- 
proximately $2,000,000,000,  is  just  about  equal 

103 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

to  the  total  gross  income  of  all  the  railroads 
in  the  country,  which,  in  1905,  amounted  to 
$2,080,000,000.1  In  addition  is  the  burden  of 
caring  for  the  product  in  criminal  prosecution 
of  the  same,  and  in  poverty  and  defective 
humanity.  The  great  total  cannot  be  given 
accurately  but  certainly  it  is  not  less  than 
twice  the  first  cost  to  society. 

In  return  the  trade  furnishes  social  and  per- 
sonal enjoyment  to  its  users,  but  often  of  a 
personally  corrupting  and  dangerous-to-the- 
public  sort,  pays  the  farmer  for  a  small  share 
of  his  crop  and  furnishes  employment  to  a  few 
men  in  manufacture  and  to  a  large  force  in 
its  distribution  and  sale  and  pays  over  one- 
fourth  of  the  entire  running  expenses  of  the 
national  government  as  well  as  a  large  amount 
to  local  and  state  governments.  The  Federal 
government  receives  in  customs  from  liquor 
imported  $13,529,000,  in  internal  revenue 
$191,718,000,  in  special  taxes  $7,318,000,  a 
total  of  $212,565,000.-  the  cities,  and  states 
collect  about  $100,000,000  more  in  taxes, 
licenses  and  fines,  making  a  total  of  about 
$312,565,000  annually  returned  to  society  . 

Considering  the  fact  that  intemperance 
is  so  destructive  of  life  and  happiness,  as  well 
as  of  money  and  capacity  that  should  be  used 
to  increase  wealth  in  the  community  it  is  but 
a  conservative  statement  that  brands  the  trade 
that  caters  to  it  as  a  wholesale  public  robber — 
a  grafter  on  dissipation.  In  taking  from  the 
nation  the  earning  capacity  of  its  sober  every- 
day citizens  it  is  striking  deep  at  future  prog- 
ress. Other  trades  produce  more  wealth  than 
they  consume ;  the  liquor  business  is  a  para- 

104 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

site  consuming  what  they  store  up  and  return- 
ing practically  nothing.  Its  overthrow  by  gov- 
ernmental action  is  necessary : 

1.  To  remove  the  worse  than  useless  burden 
in  care  and  support  of  one-half  or  more  of 
all  crime,  37  per  cent,  of  pauperism,  40  per 
cent,  of  the  inmates  of  hospitals  for  the  insane 
and  feeble  minded  and  an  equally  large  share 
of  others  thrown  upon  the  public  for  support. 
To  get  at  the  source  of  delinquency  and  de- 
pendency in  society  and  save  the  victims  as 
men  and  women  rather  than  to  permit  them  to 
be  cared  for  or  punished  at  public  expense. 

2.  To  supplement  other  agencies  for  social 
relief  and  education ;  the  social  settlement,  the 
school  and  church  cannot  do  their  work  suc- 
cessfully while  competition  by  the  legalized 
saloon  is  so  unrestricted.  The  license  system 
now  followed  throws  the  burden  entirely  on 
the  relief  organizations  while  it  gives  an  undue 
prestige  and  protection  to  the  liquor  trade  and 
the  saloon. 

3.  It  is  a  primary  function  of  government 
to  protect  public  wealth. 

4.  Because  it  interferes  wnth  normal  con- 
sumption, thus  injuring  markets  for  other 
trades  and  labor.  "Under-consumption  is  the 
economic  cause  of  unemployment.  The  only 
remedy,  therefore,  which  goes  to  the  root  of 
the  evil  is  a  raising  of  the  standard  of  con- 
sumption to  the  point  which  shall  fully  utilize 
the  producing  power. "^ 

5.  The  fundamental  safety  and  progress  of 
the  nation  depend  upon  the  quality  of  its  cit- 
izens. The  amount  of  money  now  being  spent, 
especially  among  the  poorer  classes,  is  depriv- 

105 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AN'D  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

ing-  the  children  of  necessary  home  comforts, 
food,  clothing,  a  proper  share  of  play  and 
recreation,  and  is  preparing  them  to  be  heavy 
burdens  both  to  themselves  and  to  society.  It 
is  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  who  says,  "The  danger 
resident  in  these  huge  national  drink  bills 
reaches  beyond  misery  and  moral  degradation. 
Civilization  itself  is  menaced  by  this  growing 
economic  waste.  If  it  be  true,  and  there  seems 
to  be  a  general  opinion  to  that  effect,  that  ex- 
cesses are  less  frequent  now  than  formerly 
among  the  upper  classes,  the  burden  must  be 
falling  chiefly  upon  those  who  are  relatively 
least  able  to  support  it.  Certainly  the  family 
budget  of  the  wage  earner  is  not  so  flexible 
that  liberal  expenditures  for  drink  may  be 
made  with  impunity.  So  delicately  adjusted  is 
the  balance  that  the  status  of  a  new  generation 
is  largely  determined  by  the  quantity  of  alco- 
hol the  fathers  consume." 

Since  the  liquor  traffic  and  the  resulting 
drink  habit  strike  so  vitally  at  the  very  source 
and  necessary  conditions  of  public  wealth, 
nothing  less  than  the  total  destruction  of  that 
traffic,  and  with  it  the  removal  of  the  chief 
source  of  intemperance,  can  adequately  solve 
the  problem  from  an  economic  point  of  view. 


References  and  Authorities. 

National  Wealth  and  Social  Welfare. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  46-53,  63-65,  83-89. 
Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

9-11. 
Rowntree  and   Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem and  Social  Reform,"  21-58. 
106 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  &  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

'  Patten,  "The  Economic  Basis  of  Prohibition," 
Annals  American  Academy  of  PoHtical  and 
Social    Science,   Vol.    II,  66. 

'  Hobson,  "The  Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism," 
283. 
Industrial  Prohibition. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
11-12. 

Wheeler,   "Prohibition,"  90-92. 

Johnson,  "Railroad  Temperance  Regulations," 
Chautauquan,  June,  1904 

"Commercialism  to  Settle  the  Saloon  Question," 
New  Voice,  Oct.   i,  1902. 

'  Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form," II. 

'  Mrs.   Mary  H.   Hunt,  of  the   National   Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union. 
Liquor  and  the  Length  of  Life. 

Kelynack,   "The   Drink   Problem,"    152-160. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form,"  51-53. 

Whittaker,  "Alcoholic  Beverages  and  Longevity," 
Contemporary,    March,    1904. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  100-105. 

^  Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form,"  53. 

'  Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  153,  154. 
The  Economic  Demands  for  Prohibition. 

Patton,  "The  Economic  Basis  of  Prohibition," 
Annals  American  Academy,  vol.  II,  59-68. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  52,  131-142,  207-216. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  7-20,  49-56,  67-76. 

'  Statistical  Abstract,  587. 

=  Same,  107. 

'  Hobson,  "Problems  of  the  Unemployed,"  98. 


107 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  RELATION  OF  LIQUOR  TO  EDUCATION. 

The  Saloon    and   the    Public   School.— The 

saloon  is  not  merely  a  place  of  retail  business, 
it  is  a  great  public  educational  institution.  It 
influences  the  thought,  morals,  politics,  social 
customs,  ideals  and  conversation  of  its  patrons 
as  the  grocery  and  shoe  store  never  do.  It 
has  an  atmosphere  of  its  own,  unlike  that  of 
any  other  trade,  in  addition  to  its  direct  busi- 
ness polic}^  of  supplying  the  necessary  means 
to  intemperance. 

It  has  been  called  "z  school  of  crime." 
Some  saloons  are ;  some  are  not.  Since  at 
least  50  per  cent,  of  crime  is  due  directly  or 
indirectly  to  drink  there  is  much  foundation 
for  this  charge.  Yet  many  saloons,  apparently 
obedient  to  law  themselves  and  which  do  not 
encourage  excess,  are  greater  sources  of  evil 
on  account  of  the  sort  of  public  ideals  which 
they  foster  and  the  character  which  they  give 
to  their  "scholars"  than  are  the  violent  and 
low-down  groggeries  that  have  turned  out  the 
Czolgosz's  and  Guiteau's  that  strike  at  the 
representatives  of  government. 

The  saloon  is  a  day  school,  a  night  school, 
a  vacation  school,  a  Sunday-school,  a  kinder- 
garten, a  college  and  a  university  all  in  one. 
It  runs  without  term-ends,  vacations  or  holi- 

108 


THE  RELATION  OF  LIQUOR  TO  EDUCATION. 

days.  Its  attendants  are  of  all  ages  and  from 
almost  every  grade  of  society. 

But  the  saloon  is  only  the  representative  of 
the  larger  field  of  liquor  interests,  organized 
and  unorganized,  licensed  and  illicit,  back  of  it. 
A  description  of  our  public  educational  sys- 
tem would  be  very  incomplete  if  confined  to 
"the  little  red  school  house"'  and  the  city  high- 
school  alone.  The  superintendents  and  boards 
of  education  who  hire  the  teachers,  select  the 
courses  of  study  and  control  their  methods 
and  policies  of  instruction  in  this  gigantic  pro- 
liquor  educational  system  are  the  promoters 
of  the  trade,  the  brewers  who  start  the  saloon- 
keeper in  business  and  often  own  his  whole 
stock  and  outfit  of  fixtures,  the  trade  that  plans 
the  advertising  that  will  get  new  forces  of 
drinkers,  youths  and  foreigners,  and  beyond 
all  these  the  public  policy  of  license  and  taxa- 
tion making  the  saloon  an  apparent  necessity, 
not  only  as  a  means  of  support  to  the  govern- 
ment, but  also  to  pay  the  expenses  of  its  rival 
educational  institution,  the  public  school. 

In  our  great  cities,  and  many  smaller  ones, 
the  saloon  is  an  objective  competing  institution 
with  the  public  school ;  the  organized  sale  of 
dissipation  is  a  competing  force  with  educa- 
tion. 

(1)  In  the  home  it  establishes  poverty  and 
ideals  of  drinking  and  quarrelling  where  peace, 
morality  and  sufficient  care  to  insure  a  normal 
childhood  should  prevail.  It  not  only  limits 
the  time  spent  at  school  but  also  counteracts 
directly  the  kind  of  instruction  there  given 
by  the  powerful  objective  fact  of  a  dozen 
saloons  passed  morning,  noon  and  night. 

109 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

(2)  It  mis-educates,  passively  but  power- 
fully, the  new  arrivals  to  our  population  from 
foreign  shores,  teaching  them  wrong  ideals  of 
liberty  and  government  and  encouraging  them 
to  cling  to  the  worst  of  habits  and  anti-social 
ideas  developed  under  a  despotic  European 
ruler. 

(3)  It  is  a  vast  university  for  large  num- 
bers of  adults  who,  after  having  left  the  public 
school  at  an  early  age,  have  no  other  public 
or  social  institution  that  plays  so  large  a  part 
in  their  lives. 

In  its  conflict  with  the  school  the  saloon  is 
constantly  present,  except  in  communities 
where  it  has  been  expelled  by  law.  Morning, 
noon  and  night,  thousands  of  children,  going 
to  and  from  school  pass  its  doors,  open  from 
18  to  20  hours  each  day,  often  seven  days  a 
week  and  365  days  each  year.  The  school 
opens  at  9  A.  M.  and  closes  at  3  P.  M.  run- 
ning five  days  a  week  and  nine  months  a  year. 
Time  alone  being  considered  the  resultant  of 
the  competing  educational  forces  must  be  de- 
cidedly bad.  Imitation  is  a  primary  social  fact 
and  especially  strong  in  children.  Whatever 
they  see  going  on  about  thern  comes,  sooner 
or  later,  to  be  a  part  of  their  own  habits,  cus- 
toms and  views  in  general.  It  is  true  that 
the  right  sort  of  home  influences  will  largely 
counteract  the  repeated  suggestions  from  the 
saloon,  and  its  evils  will  even  make  children 
hate  it,  but  such  vast  numbers  do  not  have  the 
right  home  training,  due  also,  in  part,  to  alco- 
hol and  its  use.  Besides  what  a  useless  burden 
of  care,  solicitude  and  painstaking  instruction 
is    thus    thrown    upon    temperate    parents    to 

110 


THE  RELATION  OF  LIQUOR  TO  EDUCATION. 

counteract  the  vicious  suggestions  constantly 
thrown  out  upon  their  growing  children.  Any 
effort  here  to  protect  the  children  is  met  by  a 
counter  effort  to  defend  the  income  of  the 
saloon  and  to  throw  a  halo  of  "liberty"  about 
its  denizens. 

A  tremendous  revolution  in  school  attend- 
ance, especially  in  the  older  grades,  follows 
the  expulsion  of  the  saloon  on  a  large  scale 
as  shown  by  Assistant  Attorney  General  Trick- 
ett  of  Kansas  when  the  saloons  were  closed  in 
Kansas  City,  Kans.,  July  3,  1906.  By  Sep- 
tember an  additional  force  of  eighteen  new 
teachers  was  needed.     Says  Mr.  Trickett : 

"I  went  to  the  teachers  and  said,  'From 
whence  comes  this  large  demand  for  admission 
to  our  public  schools  ?'  The  result  was  a  list 
of  600  boys  and  girls  from  twelve  to  eighteen 
years  of  age  who  attended  the  public  schools 
last  year  for  the  first  time.  And  they  gave  as 
a  reason  why  they  had  not  attended  in  former 
years  that  they  had  to  assist  a  drinking  father 
to  earn  a  living  for  the  family." 

Delinquencies  and  Disability  in  School  Chil- 
dren.— Harmful  as  is  the  educational  effect  of 
the  saloon  upon  normal  children,  the  part  that 
drink  plays,  upon  the  life-history  of  those  not 
quite  up  to  par  and  those  who  need  special 
moral  restraint,  is  yet  more  varied  and  pow- 
erful. Its  influences  during  the  school  period 
are  hereditary,  environmental  and  personal. 

The  schools  are  full  of  dull  children  made 
so  through  inhuman  treatment  or  neglect  by 
drinking  parents,  or  who  inherited  their  men- 
tal deficiency  because  of  alcohol  used  by  ances- 
tors, near  or  as  remote  as  the  third  and  fourth 
111 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AXn  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

generation.  The  records  of  the  juvenile  courts 
are  crowded  with  impulsive  crimes  by  chil- 
dren. "Within  a  brief  period  in  New  York 
City  six  boys  aged  seven,  nine,  ten,  eleven, 
twelve  and  fourteen  respectively  were  con- 
victed for  burglary,  three  of  them  having  de- 
veloped a  shrewd  plan  to  rob  sixty  houses. 
Two  boys,  fifteen  and  seventeen  years  old, 
were  found  guilty  of  assault  and  highway  rob- 
bery. Three  boys,  ten,  fourteen  and  sixteen 
years  of  age,  were  convicted  of  murder.  In 
each  of  these  instances  alcohol  bore  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  family  history.  Hardly 
a  day  passes  without  its  record  of  juvenile 
crime. "^ 

Dr.  T.  Alexander  MacNichol  of  New  York, 
after  a  very  extensive  and  scientific  investiga- 
tion, shows  how  the  children  of  drinkers  in- 
herit a  susceptible  nervous  temperament  which, 
at  the  first  taste,  is  aroused  into  a  passionate 
fondness  for  drink. ^  "Alcohol  by  destroying 
the  integrity  of  nerve  structures  launches 
hereditary  influences  and  implants  tendencies 
which  a  good  environment  may  not  hold  in 
check."  As  an  average  example  among  the 
better  class  of  families  he  gives  the  following: 
"Two  little  girls,  four  and  six  years  of  age, 
had  the  desire  for  drink  aroused  by  a  medici- 
nal dose  of  whiskey,  and  for  months  greedily 
drank  iced  whiskey  which  an  indulgent 
mother  provided  in  response  to  their  strenuous 
appeals."  He  shows  its  relation  to  deficiency 
in  mental  capacity  in  the  following  sum- 
maries: "From  15  to  25  per  cent,  of  drinkers, 
free  from  alcoholic  taint,  are  dullards.  From 
53  per  cent,  to  71  per  cent,  of  the  descendants 

112 


thp:  relatiox  of  liquor  to  education. 

of  a  drinking  ancestry  are  dullards.  From  4 
per  cent,  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  descendants 
of  a  total  abstaining  ancestry  are  dullards." 

Of  12,919  children  classed  as  dullards,  com- 
ing to  school  from  prosperous  families  75  per 
cent,  had  drinking  parents,  while  but  32  per 
cent,  of  all  children  from  well-to-do  homes 
had  parents  who  drank.  From  poor  families 
there  came  3,193  dullards  85  per  cent,  of  which 
had  parents  who  used  liquors.^  Among  the 
poor  the  mental  slowness  is  partly  due  to  the 
sort  of  home  caused  by  alcoholic  indulgences 
as  well  as  to  inherited  deficiencies  but  in  the 
more  prosperous  homes  the  connection  must 
be  largely  hereditary. 

Alcoholic  environment  in  the  home  and  on 
the  streets  is  very  unfavorable  to  good,  or 
even  average,  school  work.  It  accentuates 
evil  proclivities  and  offers  a  field  for  the  un- 
folding of  physical  weakness  and  moral  de- 
pravity. Ignorance,  especially  among  the 
hosts  of  recent  immigrants,  causes  many  chil- 
dren to  be  taught  to  use  beer  or  brandy  with 
their  meals.  While  many  adults  may  drink  in 
this  way  occasionally  or  even  regularly  and 
appear  none  the  worse  for  it,  children  can  not 
do  so  under  any  conditions.  The  free  lunch, 
the  specially  prepared  drinks,  the  occasional 
free  drinks  of  beer  or  "doctored"  soft  drinks, 
the  games  and  amusements  and  the  desire  to 
imitate  older  men  all  attract  boys  and  "create 
the  appetite"  or  develop  that  already  started. 
Largely  in  proportion  to  the  number  and  at- 
tractiveness of  the  saloons  in  a  neighborhood 
does  the  moral  and  physical  strength  among 
children,  and  especially  among  boys,  decline. 

113 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

The  Committee  of  Fifty  show  that  45.83 
per  cent,  of  the  neglect  and  destitution  of  chil- 
dren is  caused  directly  by  drinking  parents  or 
guardians.  So  far  as  the  child  and  its  educa- 
tion is  concerned  the  evil  is  partly  remedied 
by  the  public  in  taking  charge  of  such  children 
and  placing  them  in  institutions.  But  this  is 
only  a  substitution  for  home,  at  best.  The 
greatest  cause  of  child  labor  in  factories  and 
shops  is  support  of  mother  and  brothers  and 
sisters  neglected,  or  worse,  by  a  drinking 
father ;  or  by  one  confined  in  a  workhouse  or 
prison  on  account  of  crimes  committed  under 
the  influence  of  drink.  "The  main  reason  why 
hungry  boys  and  girls  are  found  upon  the 
road  is  drunken  fathers,"  savs  Josiah  Flint  in 
"The  Children  of  the  Road." 

The  extent  to  which  children  are  taught  to 
use  liquor  in  our  great  foreign  centers  of 
population  in  the  large  cities  would  be  astound- 
ing to  the  average  rural  American.  It  is  lay- 
ing a  large  foundation  for  future  diseased  and 
criminal  citizens.  Notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  scientific  instruction  in  health  and  the 
effects  of  narcotics  in  the  public  schools  has 
largely  increased  the  number  of  total  ab- 
stainers, some  teachers  reporting  as  much  as 
20  per  cent,  less  now  than  five  years  ago,  the 
"vast  immigration  of  inferior  peoples,  attracted 
by  our  great  material  prosperity  and  the  hope 
of  political  liberty,  bringing  with  them  their 
vices  as  v/ell  as  their  virtues,  augmenting  our 
drinking  classes,  furnishing  additional  soil 
from  which  to  propogate  criminals .  .  renders 
more  imperative  the  necessity  for  these  move- 
ments   which    will    alleviate    and    enlighten."^ 

114 


THE    RELATION    OF    LIQUOR    TO    EDUCATION. 

But  it  is  not  the  foreign  children  of  school  age 
alone  that  drink ;  nor  is  it  confined  to  the 
poorer  classes.  Dr.  MacNichol  found  that  in 
34,000  cases  of  children  attending  school  from 
prosperous  homes  there  were  27  per  cent,  who 
drank,  4  per  cent,  using  spirits  and  23  per 
cent,  beer,  leaving  only  73  per  cent,  that  were 
total  abstainers.  In  6,879  cases  of  poor  chil- 
dren the  abstainers  were  50  per  cent.,  beer 
drinkers  43  per  cent,  and  drinkers  of  spirits, 
including  wines,  7  per  cent.  But  40  per  cent, 
of  the  drinking  half  used  both  spirits  and 
beer.  These  latter,  classed  by  nationalities, 
bring  out  the  fact  that  36  per  cent,  of  the 
Americans  and  50  per  cent,  of  the  foreigners, 
including  children  of  foreign  born  parents, 
drink.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  drinking 
Americans  have  foreign-born  grandparents. 

Certainly  not  much  in  the  way  of  respect 
for  order  and  decency  in  the  neighborhood  can 
be  expected  from  children  and  youths  who 
drink.  In  the  Illinois  State  Reformatory,  at 
Pontiac,  59  per  cent,  of  the  boys  there  con- 
fined in  1903  were  found  to  have  used  liquor 
before  being  committed."  Of  those  under  14 
years  of  age  56  out  of  86  drank.  The  larger 
part  of  the  whole  number  had  fathers  who 
drank  to  excess.  Drink  can  not  be  charged 
with  this  whole  ugly  burden  of  mis-directed 
boyhood;  lack  of  home  training,  death  of  par- 
ents, and  many  other  factors  enter  in.  But 
certainly  no  one  will  deny  that  liquor,  whether 
used  by  parents  or  the  boys  themselves,  was 
a  most  unnecessary  cause  in  producing  this 
youthful  criminality. 

The  Mis-Education  of  the  Foreigner. — Seek- 

115 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

ing  to  break  the  bonds  of  political  subjection 
and  religious  intolerance  the  early  Puritan  and 
Huguenot  "immigrants"  established  a  type  of 
liberty,  not  without  its  rigors  and  severities, 
which  has  become  the  admiration  of  the  civ- 
ilized world.  With  memory  keen  to  their  own 
recent  persecutions,  but  with  high  respect  for 
law  they  founded  deep  the  principles  of  equal- 
ity and  liberty,  based  upon  equal  regard  for 
the  welfare  of  others.  Ever  since,  American 
liberty,  known  the  world  around,  has  been 
subject  to  law — to  regulation  for  the  best  wel- 
fare of  the  community  as  a  whole — not  to  that 
sort  of  liberty  which  means  license  and  runs 
into  anarchy. 

During  the  first  sixty  years  of  our  national 
life  the  hosts  of  Irish,  English,  Dutch  and 
Germans  brought  a  more  liberalizing  tone,  per- 
haps needed,  but  did  not  bring  disrespect  for 
law  or  extreme  views  of  liberty.  They  were 
among  the  most  ingenious,  enterprising  and 
courageous  of  the  communities  from  which 
they  came.  They  built  upon  the  political  and 
religious  principles  laid  by  the  colonists. 

But  during  the  last  fifty  years,  and  more 
particularly  in  the  last  twenty,  it  has  been  the 
least  thrifty  and  prosperous,  the  "beaten"  and 
inefficient  at  home,  that  have  sought  this  coun- 
try.^ With  the  hordes  now  coming  at  the 
rate  of  more  than  1,000,000  per  year  appetite 
and  passion  are  stronger,  relatively,  in  respect 
to  the  mental  capacity  to  control  them.  Under 
fearful  pressure  and  taxation  at  home  many 
have  learned  to  hate  authority  and  to  think  of 
all  law  merely  as  a  guise  to  oppression.  With 
this    distorted   view    it   is    scarcely   surprising 

116 


THE    KELATION    OF    LIQUOR   TO    EDUCATION. 

that  liquor  regulations  and  other  public  wel- 
fare laws  should  be  defied  as  well  as  that 
actual  anarchistic  outbreaks  should  occur. 

The  saloon  itself,  imported  in  \he  early  days, 
has  remained  an  unnaturalized  foreigner.  In 
most  countries,  particularly  in  England  and 
America,  during  the  past  few  years  it  has  un- 
dergone a  change  becoming  more  lawless  as 
temperance  sentiment  has  developed  and  as 
modern  methods  of  business  concentration 
have  given  it  occasion  for  going  into  politics. 
Directly  and  indirectly  it  does  much  to  keep 
alive  and  to  create  anew  disregard  for  the 
rights  of  the  whole  community  and  to  encour- 
age customs  of  personal  indulgence  and  dis- 
torted ideas  of  personal  liberty. 

It  is  vital  to  national  welfare,  for  the  native 
and  foreigner  alike,  that  the  principles  which 
made  this  country  an  asylum  for  the  oppressed 
in  the  early  days  and  supplied  the  foundation 
for  the  material  prosperity  of  today,  shall 
continue  active  and  untarnished ;  that  foreign 
conflicting  ideals  either  shall  die  at  Ellis  Is- 
land, or,  learning  that  there  is  no  soil  in  which 
to  flourish  here,  shall  not  start  for  this  coun- 
try at  all.  It  is  not  the  foreign  man,  but  the 
sort  of  foreign  ideas  of  liberty  and  social 
morality  cultivated  by  the  saloon  and  its  asso- 
ciates that  are  dangerous. 

The  foreigner's  worst  enemy  on  arrival  in 
this  country  is  the  foreigner  already  here. 
Nearly  all  sweat-shop  manipulators,  who  take 
advantage  of  the  poverty  and  ignorance  of  the 
new  arrivals,  to  contract  them  at  one-fourth 
to  one-half  what  independent  workers  could 
get,  are  Russian  Jews  ;  their  victims  are  Rus- 
117 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

sian  Jews  and  Italians.  The  padrone  system, 
which  exploits  ignorance  in  hordes,  contracts 
laborers,  at  a  very  small  price,  puts  them  un- 
der obligations  by  supplying  transportation 
and  food,  and  then  turns  them  over  to  con- 
struction gangs  and  railroad  contractors  mak- 
ing a  profit  on  every  man's  wages,  usually  is 
managed  by  foreigners.  American  greed 
supplies  the  incentive ;  but  low-grade  foreign 
men  do  the  work.  The  city  and  ward  politi- 
cians who  prey  upon  the  public  treasury  find 
these  new  arrivals  the  best  recruits  to  their 
army  of  voters.  Their  sub-agents  herd  these 
would-be  citizens  by  nationalities,  secure  their 
naturalization  papers  in  groups  by  wholesale 
and  vote  them  in  the  interests  of  any  vicious 
legislative  or  administrative  proposition  that 
may  be  up.  The  saloon-keeper,  usually  him- 
self foreign-born,  is  the  intermediate  agent 
and  his  place  is  not  only  headquarters  but  it 
also  furnishes  the  necessary  "medium  of  ex- 
change." 

The  new  arrival  gets  much  of  his  first  ideas 
of  American  liberty  in  the  saloon  or  from 
saloon  patrons.  After  a  while  he  learns  that 
there  are  laws  regulating  its  hours  of  sale  and 
ordering  it  to  close  on  Sunday ;  these  are  sys- 
tematically violated,  in  many  places.  Coming 
from  a  country  where  he  was  subject  to  an 
excess  of  law  and  where  obedience  was 
strictly  enforced  he  goes  to  the  opposite  ex- 
treme. With  this  type  of  liberty  as  precedent, 
run  by  his  own  countrymen  who  interpret 
American  liberty  to  him,  he  can  not  be  ex- 
pected to  gain  a  very  high  respect  for  our 
laws.      Instead    of   loving   freedom    here    the 

118 


THE    RELATIOX    OF    LIQUOR    TO    EDUCATION. 

more  on  account  of  birth  under  oppression,  as 
did  the  earHer  immigrants,  he  gains  the  im- 
pression that  Hberty  means  do  as  you  choose 
and  refuses  to  be  governed  by  the  regulations 
under  which  only  liberty  is  possible.  "More 
than  any  other  one  factor,  the  saloon  has 
broken  down  the  American  Sabbath  and  ush- 
ered in  the  Continental  Sunday,  disdaining  in 
most  cases  even  to  change  the  law,  but  accom- 
plishing its  work  in  spite  of  the  law.  It  is  in 
the  saloon  that  Anarchism  finds  a  rendezvous 
and  an  inspiration,  and  the  red  flag  has  never 
floated  to  the  American  breeze  except  from 
an  American  saloon."^  Under  cover  of  loyalty 
to  the  social  customs  of  the  fatherland,  and  in 
accordance  with  this  distorted  idea  of  liberty, 
organized  defiance  to  law  and  its  enforcement 
is  made  in  our  great  cities  and  candidates 
elected  to  office  on  this  issue.  The  so-called 
"United  Societies  for  Personal  Liberty"  in 
Chicago,  composed  of  beer-loving  Germans, 
Polish  and  Bohemians,  has  for  its  one  purpose 
the  open  ignoring  of  the  Sunday  closing  and 
other  similar  laws.  They  claim  to  represent 
the  German  element ;  they  do  not ;  they  stand 
only  for  that  part  that  is  determined  to  have 
their  booze  at  any  cost  of  public  decency.  The 
best  elements  of  these  nationalities  in  the  city 
are  strictly  opposed  to  their  "liberal"  princi- 
ples. 

The  general  criminality  of  foreigners  is  two 
and  one-half  times  that  of  natives,  due, 
chiefly,  to  the  lower  grade  of  the  present  in- 
coming stream  from  Southern  and  Eastern 
Europe.  But  the  children  of  foreigners,  born 
in  this  country,  show  a  much  higher  rate  of 
119 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

crime  than  do  the  foreign-born  children  of 
these  same  famihes.^  Under  the  environment 
furnished  by  the  saloon,  its  vices,  its  political 
power  and  defiance  of  law,  and  other  asso- 
ciated evils,  the  first  generation  of  our  present 
foreign  population  is  the  most  crime-hardened 
of  all  classes  in  this  country — much  worse 
than  the  new  arrivals  themselves. 

"But  above  and  beyond  all,  the  saloon  has 
organized,  and  in  a  large  part  created,  a  pur- 
chaseable  vote  whose  proportions  have  alarmed 
even  American  optimism."  .  .  .  "It  is  this 
above  all  that  makes  the  drink  question  one 
that  lies,  as  Cobden  said,  'at  the  foundation 
of  all  social  and  political  reform.'  ''*  Sought 
after  at  once,  on  acount  of  his  prospective 
vote,  assisted  to  get  fraudulent  naturalization 
papers,  shown  how  he  may  send  these  back 
home  as  a  means  of  admitting  other  undesir- 
ables, selling  his  vote  from  year  to  year  for 
a  few  drinks  or  a  dollar  or  two,  "in  every  way 
the  alien  is  put  on  the  wrong  track  and  his 
American  experiences  are  such  as  would  nat- 
urally make  him  lawless  and  criminal  rather 
than  a  good  citizen.  He  needs  nothing  more 
than  protection  against  corruption  and  venal 
agencies  which  find  their  origin  in  politics  and 
the  saloon."^  "  'Where  God  builds  a  church 
the  devil  builds  next  door  a  saloon"  is  an  old 
saying  that  has  lost  its  point  in  New  York. 
Either  the  devil  was  on  the  ground  first,  or  he 
has  been  doing  a  good  deal  more  in  the  way 
of  building.  I  tried  once  to  find  out  how  the 
account  stood,  and  counted  to  111  Protestant 
churches,  chapels,  and  places  of  worship  of 
every    kind    below    Fourteenth    Street,    4,065 

120 


THE    RELATION    OF    LIQUOR   TO    EDUCATION. 

saloons.  The  worst  half  of  the  tenement 
population  lives  down  there,  and  it  has  to  this 
day  the  worst  half  of  the  saloons.  Up  town 
the  account  stands  a  little  better,  but  there 
are  easily  ten  saloons  to  every  church  today."*' 

Its  Mis-Education  of  the  Public. — The 
American  spirit  of  fair  play  grants  to  every 
industry  the  privilege  of  creating  and  main- 
taining for  itself  a  place  in  the  public  mind. 
Publicity  means  not  only  attention,  but  also 
favorable  attention.  It  is  the  life  of  trade 
under  20th  century  methods.  The  opportunity 
to  educate  sentiment  in  a  business  way  is  an 
outgrowth  of  the  fundamental  right  of  free 
speech. 

But  publicity  getting,  that  is  education  of 
public  attention  for  private  financial  ends,  is  a 
right  that  must  be  strictly  regulated.  The  most 
monstrous  hoaxes  and  frauds  have  been  per- 
petrated upon  the  public  with  every  semblance 
of  scientific  truth  and  logic  to  support  them. 
"Patent  medicine"  "cure-alls,"  first  viciously 
suggesting  disease  where  none  exists,  break- 
ing down  self-respect  and  then  supplying  use- 
less and  dangerous  nostrums,  are  a  common 
but  mild  form  of  abuse  of  this  right.  Govern- 
ment finds  it  wise  to  regulate  strictly  such  sales 
under  pure  food  and  drug  acts.  Vicious, 
mendacious  and  obscene  literature  are  forbid- 
den the  use  of  the  mails  and  are  subject  to 
police  confiscation  to  prevent  wholesale  blight- 
ing of  the  public  ideals  of  morality. 

No  one  would  think  of  denying  to  the  liquor 
trade  the  right  of  holding  and  enlarging  its 
place  in  public  opinion  by  reasonable  and 
fairly  honest  methods.     As   it  now  stands   it 

121 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM. 

has  years  of  public  approval  back  of  it.  If 
questioned,  it  has  a  right  to  show  cause,  at  the 
bar  of  public  opinion,  why  it  should  continue 
unrestricted.  It  may  cite  the  millions  of  dol- 
lars it  pays  each  year  as  license,  tax  and 
revenue  to  the  support  of  the  government, 
local  and  national,  as  proof  of  its  loyalty  and 
reason  for  its  continuance ;  it  may  point  to  the 
saloon  as  a  place  of  democratic  sociability 
where  men  may  have  recreation  after  a  hard 
day's  labor ;  to  the  pleasure  it  furnishes  those 
who  drink  and  to  its  importance  as  a  business 
industry  in  the  community. 

But  the  liquor  trade  sadly  abuses  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  of  fair  play.  Being  engaged  in 
supplying  an  article  of  merchandise  which 
tends  to  produce  the  vice  of  intemperance,  the 
reaction  of  such  a  trade  upon  the  men  engaged 
in  it  seems  to  cause  them  to  lose  all  regard  for 
truth.  Apparently  they  are  afraid  to  trust 
their  wares  to  be  judged  on  merit  alone  and 
must  make  their  appeal  for  favorable  attention 
on  deception. 

There  has  long  been  a  regular  and  system- 
atic attempt  to  defraud  the  public  as  to  certain 
qualities  of  alcohol.  Long  extended  series  of 
newspaper  and  magazine  advertising  with  false 
claims  and  spurious  testimonials  are  constantly 
appearing.  The  use  of  certain  brands  of 
whisky  are  said  to  produce  long  life  and 
health ;  but  the  arguments  used  to  substantiate 
the  claim  are  misrepresentations  and  gross 
fraud.  A  favorite  testimonial  is  the  picture  of 
a  very  old  man,  or  woman,  with  a  letter  appa- 
rently from  him,  stating  or  suggesting  that 
his  health  and  long  life  are  due  to  the  constant 

122 


TKE    RELATIOX    OF    LIQUOR   TO    EDUCATION. 

use  of  that  brand  of  whisky.  When  traced 
down  these  cases  are  found,  almost  invariably, 
to  have  been  people  who  were  temperate  all 
their  lives,  who  were  induced  to  take  a  sample 
of  the  "medicine"  as  a  gift  in  return  for  sign- 
ing" a  testimonial  already  written.  The  liquor 
agent  follows  the  shrewd  plan  of  getting  the 
signature  first.  Sometimes  these  testimonials 
are  pure  fabrications  made  up  in  the  advertis- 
ing section  of  the  liquor  firm  by  the  advertis- 
ing manager. 

There  is  a  widespread  mis-instruction  of  the 
public  as  to  the  sociability  features  of  the 
saloon.  Retail  dealers  and  their  organizations 
constantly  proclaim  the  saloon  as  the  poor 
man's  club ;  they  endeavor  to  make  it  serve  in 
this  capacity  by  supplying  free  lunch  and 
music  in  order  to  gain  custom  and  retain  a 
hold  upon  the  sympathies  of  the  community. 

The  saloon  cultivates  by  direct  instruction 
and  suggestion  the  same  false  ideas  of  liberty 
in  American  born  children  and  older  people  as 
it  teaches  to  the  newly  arrived  foreigner. 
Under  the  constitution  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  "personal  liberty."  It  is  "civil  liberty"  or 
"liberty  of  conscience"  etc.  not  "personal." 
This  idea,  which  carries  with  it  so  much  im- 
plication of  unrestricted  opportunity  to  do  as 
one  pleases  without  regard  to  the  rights  of 
others,  is  a  more  recent  importation.  Liberty 
without  law  is  not  the  original  American  con- 
ception that  has  gained  the  praise  of  the  whole 
world. 

The  public  is  constantly  being  deceived  as 
to  the  extent  and  power  of  the  liquor  trade. 
The  number  of  votes  it  controls,  the  amount  of 

123 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

money  invested,  its  influence  over  other  lines 
of  business  more  or  less  related  and  the  unity 
and  strength  of  its  organizations,  local  and 
national,  are  constantly  exaggerated  for  the 
purpose  of  fixing  deep  the  belief  that  it  is  use- 
less to  attack  so  powerful  an  enemy.  It  indi- 
cates shrewd  understanding  of  social  psychol- 
ogy on  the  part  of  the  trade's  press  agents. 
It  further  deflects  attention  from  the  real 
center  of  power  in  the  business,  the  brewer 
and  distiller,  and  tends  to  limit  temperance 
effort  to  the  near-at-hand  saloon. 

The  liquor  trade  purchases  and  controls 
newspapers  and  their  editorial  policy.  Large 
payments  for  advertising  space  are  made  so 
as  to  prevent  news  reflecting  upon  the  saloon 
and  reports  of  temperance  and  prohibition 
progress  being  published.  The  opportunity 
thus  furnished  of  dictating  editorial  policy  on 
the  liquor  problem  has  meant  more,  doubtless, 
to  the  liquor  business  than  the  direct  publicity 
gained  for  the  particular  brands  of  beer  or 
liquors  advertised.  It  has  been  one  of  the 
powerful  means  of  keeping  in  check  so  long 
the  present  rising  tide  of  local  and  general 
prohibition.  But  there  is  now  a  distinct  revolt 
among  the  best  and  most  independent  papers 
against  this  policy  of  dictation  by  a  com- 
munity-corrupting trade.  Many  magazines 
and  dailies  refuse  to  carry  liquor  advertise- 
ments at  all  on  the  same  grounds  that  they 
throw  out  thinly  veiled  frauds  in  the  form  of 
patent  medicines,  "get-rich-quick"  schemes 
and  holes  in  the  ground,  called  gold  mines. 
Others  are  becoming  more  free  and  while  re- 
ceiving advertisements  are  yet  editorially  at- 

124 


THE    RELATION    OF    LIQUOR   TO    EDUCATION. 

tacking  the  liquor  business  and  giving  freedom 
to  prohibition  news.  The  business  control  of 
liquor  over  the  "people's  university,"  the 
newspaper,  is  being  loosened  gradually  but 
surely  and  more  rapid  progress  toward  the 
settlement  of  the  whole  problem  may  now  be 
expected. 

Looking  beneath  the  current  methods  of 
gaining  publicity  employed  by  the  liquor  busi- 
ness and  the  devices  it  uses  for  retaining  a 
good  trade  and  favor  with  the  public  we  find 
the  following: 

(1)  Intense  fear  of  a  straight-out  contest 
on  the  merits  of  the  liquor  question  itself. 

(2)  That  the  real  strength  of  the  pro- 
liquor  propaganda  and  of  the  whole  liquor 
traffic  is  the  brewer  and  the  distiller,  not  the 
individual  saloon  keeper  or  even  the  united 
saloons  of  a  town  or  county.  Ordinarily  a  few 
saloons  alone  are  too  small  to  withstand  public 
sentiment.  Besides  from  one-third  to  one-half 
are  owned  or  controlled  by  the  brewers.  The 
real  liquor  problem,  so  far  as  organized  opposi- 
tion to  temperance  is  concerned,  is  the  larger 
"trade"  back  of  the  retailer. 

Education  and  the  Liquor  Problem. — One  of 
the  earliest  functions  of  government  assumed 
by  the  states  was  the  public  education  of  chil- 
dren. The  American  public  school  system, 
the  present  outgrowth,  is  the  greatest  in  the 
world. 

The  saloon,  and  the  liquor  trade  back  of  it, 
come  into  direct  conflict  with  the  school  and 
what  it  stands  for  in  a  thousand  ways.  They 
make  it  necessary  for  vast  numbers  to  remain 
out  of  school,  after  the  first  few  years,  on  ac- 

125 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

count  of  drunken  parents ;  it  counteracts  by 
suggestion  and  example  the  teachings  of  the 
school  for  thousands.  Education  by  personal 
contact,  suggestion  and  observation,  are 
stronger  than  direct  instruction — and  they  are 
always  acting,  in  youth  and  older  age  alike. 
In  its  mis-education  of  the  1,000,000  arrivals 
from  foreign  shores  each  year  as  to  what  free- 
dom means  in  this  country  it  is  positively 
criminal. 

The  saloon  exists  as  a  public  social  fact. 
That  gives  it  standing.  Anything  that  law 
permits,  legalizes  and  secures  revenue  from  is, 
in  the  eyes  of  most  people,  legitimate  and 
right.  No  higher  code  of  morals,  public  or 
private,  exists  than  that  which  law  recognizes. 
The  saloon  is  educating  public  sentiments  to- 
wards this  standard. 

By  a  shrewd  piece  of  business  liquor  dealers 
have  for  a  long  time  endeavored  to  connect 
the  public  revenues  from  liquor  license,  taxes 
and  fines  with  the  cause  of  public  education. 
It  is  one  of  their  standard  claims  that  the  com- 
munity cannot  get  along  without  these  fees ; 
that  popular  education  will  suffer.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  seems  like  a  sort  of  rude  justice ;  make 
the  saloons  pay  the  expense  of  education,  the 
trend  of  which  is  always  away  from  the  culti- 
vation of  such  habits  as  intemperance.  Also 
from  this  point  of  view  the  tax-payer  seems  to 
have  his  assessments  lowered  by  the  applica- 
tion of  the  license  income  to  such  close-at-hand 
public  expenses  as  the  support  of  the  schools. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  broader  social  views 
are  tw^o  incontrovertible  facts ;  first,  the  pay- 
ment of  these  fees  into  the  school,  or  any  other 

126 


THE    RELATION    OF    LIQUOR    TO    EDUCATION. 

local  fund,  intrenches  the  saloon  behind  short- 
sighted cupidity  and  insures  its  perpetuation. 
Second,  the  saloon,  running  continuously  day 
after  day,  is  able  to  counteract  to  a  large  ex- 
tent much  of  the  work  of  the  school  in  the 
cultivation  of  morals  and  secure  a  full  quota 
of  new  recruits  for  itself. 

Notwithstanding  the  immense  amount  of 
money  that  this  trade  pays  into  the  public 
treasuries  each  year  to  be  used  for  school  pur- 
poses, the  whole  saloon  business  is  in  competi- 
tion with  our  public  schools.  The  government 
has  no  right  to  accept  money  from  the  one  to 
apply  to  the  other.  Its  only  right  attitude  is 
to  crush  out  completely  this  enemy  of  child- 
hood and  youth  and  of  their  best  friend,  the 
public  school. 

References  and  Authorities. 

The  Saloon  and  the  Public  School. 

American  Prohibition  Year  Book   (1908),  120. 
Delinquences  and  Disability  in  School  Children. 

Keren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem," 

126-132. 
Benedict,  "Waifs  of  the  Shmis." 
MacNichol,  "Alcohol  and  the  Disabilities  of  School 

Children ;"  address  at  the  57th  Annual  Session, 

American     Medical     Association     in     Boston; 

National  Advocate,  February,  1908. 
'Dr.  MacNichol. 
^  Report    of    Illinois    State    Reformatory,    Pontiac, 

for  1903-4. 
Mis-Education  of  the  Foreigner. 
Hall,  "Immigration,"  183-189. 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  81-88. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's  Apr.  '07. 
Riis,  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives." 
'  Hall,  "Immigration,"  22. 
127 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

=  Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  84. 
'Hall,  "Immigration,"  150-151. 
'  Wheeler,  84. 

°  Grose,  "Aliens  and  Americans,"  216. 
•Riis,  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  ch.  18. 
Mis-Education  of  the  Public. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"   187-191. 
American  Prohibition  Year  Book   (1908),  124-126. 


188 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR 
PROBLEM. 

The    Sociability    Source    of    Intemperance. 

— As  a  means  of  expressing  a  feeling  of 
sociability  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks,  it  is 
well  to  state  frankly,  is  quite  thoroughly  fixed 
in  a  large  part  of  our  current  social  custom. 
Among  certain  classes  liquors  have  been  used 
for  ages  at  social  functions,  in  clubs  and 
informal  meetings  and  in  the  home.  Of 
recent  years  the  saloon  has  largely  taken  the 
place  of  home  use,  with  the  result  that  exces- 
sive drinking  has  been  increased  and  frequent- 
ly, the  family  broken  up,  while  at  the  same 
time  a  relatively  smaller  nuniber  of  individuals 
do  the  drinking.  Without  regard  to  whether 
it  is  good  or  bad,  or  whether  a  better  means 
of  sociability  might  not  readily  be  procured, 
alcoholic  liquors  do  serve  with  a  great  many 
people  as  a  popular  method  of  gaining  the 
friendship  of  companions  and  of  expressing  a 
feeling  of  fellowship. 

In  this  sense  the  saloon  appeals  to  a  funda- 
mental social  instinct,  sociability.  It  supplies 
something  really  necessary  in  human  life,  it 
is  true,  but  in  quality  a  very  shoddy  article  at 
a  very  high  cost  of  morals  and  money.  The 
appetite  for  alcohol,  the  first  and  most  persis- 
129 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

tent  source  of  the  liquor  evil,  is  a  perverted 
taste,  a  diseased  appetite.  The  desire  to  gain 
wealth,  which  prompts  the  dealer  to  push 
his  sales  so  vigorously,  while  all  right  so  far 
as  the  honest  earning  of  money  is  concerned, 
has  gone  so  far  as  a  social  fact  that  it  is  noth- 
ing less  than  money  making  out  of  the  vices 
and  excesses  of  other  people — the  worst  of 
economics.  The  government  sanction  of  the 
business  by  taxation  and  license  afTords  a  fine 
revenue,  but  a  fearful  moral  blight  to  the  pub- 
lic conscience.  So,  perhaps,  the  only  point  that 
may  be  made  in  favor  of  the  saloon  is  that 
it  does  furnish  a  certain  amount  and  kind  of 
social  pleasure.  It  is  no  respecter  of  persons, 
but  purely  as  a  business  matter  it  is  open  to 
everybody,  rich  and  poor,  at  all  times  and 
without  regard  to  social  or  moral  standing. 
The  saloonkeeper  never  asks  embarrassing 
questions  or  places  restrictions  upon  the  con- 
duct of  his  patrons  so  long  as  they  do  not 
become  too  boisterous.  The  saloon  has  thus 
seized  upon  social  want  and  proceeds  to 
supply  it  in  its  own  way.  "The  public  house 
prokem  is  largely,  by  no  means  wholly,  a 
question  of  forgotten  needs,"  that  is,  of  socia- 
bility needs.  This  ground  the  saloon  has 
filled,  or  usurped,  and  these  needs  are  there 
satisfied,  not  hy,  hut  in  spite  of  alcohol  and 
intoxication.  The  business  aim  of  selling  all 
the  liquor  possible  is  the  only  one  that  may 
be  credited  justly  to  the  liquor  dealer. 

Methods  for  the  solution  of  the  saloon  prob- 
lem as  a  part  of  the  larger  liquor  problem, 
social  and  political,  as  we  have  it,  must  take 

130 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

the  sociability  feature  into  consideration.  If 
there  is  a  certan  amount  of  usefulness  in  the 
saloon  it  should  be  known.  There  is  no  use 
going  at  the  work  blindly.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  saloon  is  a  powerful  competitor  with 
better  means  of  sociability  and  a  source  of 
social  vice  to  the  community,  the  good  which 
it  may  do  can  be  no  excuse  for  the  greater 
evils.  Palliative  measures  will  be  found  to  be 
both  insufficient  and  wrong. 

The  welfare  of  society  as  a  whole  and  the 
effects  of  the  saloon  upon  it  must  be  the 
only  final  test  of  its  social  worth. 

The  Saloon  as  a  Social  Center.  —  The 
seeking  of  pleasure  of  the  right  kind  is  one 
of  the  legitimate  aims  of  every  individual  in 
society,  as  well  as  a  chief  end  of  social  organ- 
ization. It  is  as  important  to  health  and  all- 
round  manhood  to  be  able  to  relax  after  hard 
labor  as  it  is  to  work.  "The  destruction  of 
a  legitimate  pleasure  is  a  positive  moral  loss 
to  the  world,  and  no  nature  can  be  anything 
but  dwarfed  in  which  the  faculty  of  enjoy- 
mlent  has  not  been  developed.'" 

The  strongest  plea  that  can  be  made  for 
liquor  is  that  it  furnishes  social  pleasure. 
This  it  does,  first,  by  means  of  the  "social 
glass"  to  the  two  or  three  or  more  taking  it 
together,  and,  second,  by  means  of  the  saloon 
serving  as  a  social  center  for  certain  classes 
of  people  who  either  prefer  the  kind  of  society 
to  be  found  there  or  who  have  or  can  find  no 
other  place  open  to  them. 

It  is  only  among  certain  classes  of  people 
that  the  saloon  acts  in  this  capacity.     There 

131 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

are  many  who  drink  who  get  all  their  recrea- 
tion and  amusement  elsewhere.  They  are 
largely  the  more  able  classes  financially,  who 
can  pay  for  a  better  quality  of  social  enter- 
tainment. There  are  large  numbers  in  all 
grades  of  society  who  patronize  the  saloon 
exclusively  or  chiefly*  for  the  liquors.  After 
all  that  may  be  said  in  its  favor  as  a  social 
center,  the  saloon  is  first,  last  and  all  the  time 
the  place  for  the  sale  of  intoxicants ;  and  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  saloon  patron  is  to  get 
alcohol  and  alcoholic  drinks.  The  saloon- 
keeper makes  his  place  free  and  hospitable  to 
all  for  the  one  end  of  selling  more  liquors. 

The  people  who  respond  in  any  important 
degree  to  the  sociability  features  of  the  sa- 
loon  are : 

1.  The  more  well-to-do  or  wealthy  classes 
who  distinctly  prefer  the  sort  of  sociability 
that  accompanies  or  follows  alcoholic  intoxi- 
cation ;  those  with  blunted  moral  tastes  and 
distorted  social  ambitions,  the  degenerate  rich. 
They  make  the  saloon  a  sort  of  club  or  trans- 
form their  club  into  a  saloon.  They  might  get 
excellent  society  elsewhere,  but  they  are  not 
satisfied  with  it.  They  can  offer  no  valid  ob- 
jection against  any  interference  that  may  be 
made  with  this  sort  of  personal  liberty  in 
the  interests  of  public  welfare. 

2.  The  outcast  and  degenerate  of  other 
classes  who  seek  their  associates  among  the 
ex-criminals,  embryonic  criminals,  loafers, 
professional  beggars,  etc.,  of  the  low-down 
groggery.  Saloons  of  this  type  are  found  in 
all  our  large  cities;    they  are  the  rendezvous 

132 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

for  all  kinds  of  evil-inclined  men  who  are  a 
burden  upon  society.  Among  both  of  these 
classes,  the  rich  and  the  very  poor,  the  sort 
of  sociability  offered  caters  directly  to  social 
vice  and  gambling  of  the  worst  sorts. 

3.  There  is  a  relatively  small  but  impor- 
tant class  of  business  men  who  use  the  saloon 
as  a  place  for  business  appointments.  Cus- 
tomers are  more  readily  won  and  better  bar- 
gains made,  as  they  believe,  over  a  glass  of 
beer  or  champagne.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  this  sort  of  business  sociability  is  de- 
creasing among  many  of  the  better  and  most 
successful   houses. 

4.  There  yet  remain  the  working  classes 
who  regard  the  saloon  as  a  place  for  social 
intercourse.  Here  the  real  problem  is  found. 
First,  this  class  is  the  largest  in  the  total 
and  per  capita  consumption  of  liquors.  Sec- 
ond, their  opportunities  for  social  enjoyment, 
separate  from  the  saloon,  are  m:ore  limited, 
and  so  they  are  compelled  to  depend  upon  it 
more.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  laboring  man,  and 
he  alone,  who  may  claim  the  saloon  as  in  any 
sense  a  real  "social  center." 

Here  he  finds  relaxation  after  a  long  day 
in  the  dust  and  roar  of  the  factory  such  as 
the  crowded  and  slouchy  rooms  he  calls  home 
will  not  furnish;  here  he  can  escape  the  cry- 
ing children  and  get  the  companionship  of 
men  interested  in  the  same  things  he  is ; 
there  are  games,  cards,  pool,  reports  from 
the  races  and  prize  fights,  sometimes  music 
and  a  warm  place  in  which  to  enjoy  them. 
There  is  no  feeling  of  constraint;  on  the  con- 
133 


S;)CIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

trary,  the  manager  is  glad  to  have  him  re- 
main so  long  as  he  is  spending  money.  All 
these  enjoyments  may  be  purchased  for  an 
evening  at  the  exceedingly  small  price  of  a 
few  beers,  or  even  for  a  single  glass  with 
a  free  lunch  thrown  in.  The  saloon  is  a 
democratic  institution,  open  freely  to  everyone 
and  criticising  no  one. 

"The  Poor  Man's  Club." — The  tendency 
toward  club  life  is  growing  in  this  twentieth 
century.  Never  before  were  people  so  anx- 
ious to  unite  into  associations  with  more  or 
less  organization  and  frequent  meetings  and 
with  social,  or  social  and  economic  aims  com- 
bined, as  at  present.  Everything  from  a 
"street  Arab's"  gang  and  a  college  fraternity 
to  a  labor  union  and  a  mutual  benefit  asso- 
ciation emphasizes  this  fact. 

The  average  unskilled  workman  takes  out 
his  club  life  almost  exclusively  in  the  saloon. 
It  is  the  social  center  for  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  the  dwellers  in  our  cities,  chiefly  the 
poorer  classes  of  people.  Those  who  are  not 
patrons  of  the  saloon  find  their  social  enjoy- 
ment elsewhere.  They  usually  have  fair  or 
good  homes  and  have  a  part  in  self-supporting 
club  or  church  or  other  organized  social  life. 
The  workingman  does  not  enter  these.  The 
saloon  is  where  he  meets  his  associates,  plays 
his  game  and  relaxes  after  the  day's  labor. 
Here  he  gets  his  free  lunch  as  well  as  his 
drink.  It  has  therefore  come  to  be  called 
"the  poor  mar 's  club."  Efforts  to  do  away 
with  it  are  resented  as  an  attack  upon  the 
poor  man  b;    the  more  well-to-do.     There  is 

134 


T!1E  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

a  Strong  and  unreasonable  opposition,  often 
amounting  to  hatred,  among  laboring  men, 
especially  the  more  unskilled,  against  temper- 
ance and  prohibition  workers  for  this  very 
reason.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  is  fos- 
tered by  the  liquor  dealers  themselves  and 
class  antagonism  is  appealed  to  to  support  the 
business.  The  unreasonableness  of  the  claim 
that  the  saloon  is  the  poor  man's  club  is 
shown  when  the  large  number  of  saloons, 
sometimes  of  the  worst  kind,  supported  ex- 
clusively by  the  wealthy,  is  pointed  out.  The 
so-called  "upper  classes"  are  found  to  main- 
tain clubs  in  which  drinking  is  one  of  the 
very  chief  purposes.  The  saloon  is  not  so 
much  the  poor  man's  club  as  it  is  the  drink- 
ing man's  club. 

On  one  hand  it  may  be  conceded  that  the 
saloon  is  the  place  in  which  vast  numbers 
of  laboring  men  find  their  only  enjoyment. 
On  the  other  it  is  no  less  evident  that  it  is 
the  presence  of  the  saloon  that  makes  better 
social  life  impossible,  (i)  It  is  here,  ready 
established,  easy  to  adopt  by  every  young  man 
or  boy.  (2)  It  is  able  to  compete,  in  the 
sense  of  drawing  men  to  it,  both  by  means 
of  its  liquors  and  its  less  harmful  attractions, 
with  any  and  every  "substitute"  that  has  yet 
been  placed  in  the  field.  With  the  brewers' 
millions  of  wealth  behind  the  saloonkeeper, 
if  occasion  demands,  it  can  hold  its  own  in 
furnishing  entertainment  to  an  almost  unlim- 
ited extent.  (3)  Many  saloons  offer  evil  in- 
ducements, the  satisfaction  of  evil  appetites, 
questionable  amusements  and  gambling.    This 

135 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

is  not  the   kind  of   social   club   workingmen 
need. 

The  low  cost, at  which  the  saloon  furnishes 
its  numerous  attractions  is  one  of  the  strong 
features  in  making  it  popular.  One  reason 
why  laboring  men  do  not  form  clubs  of  their 
own  is  because  they  cannot  afford  the  mem- 
bership dues  that  would  be  required  to  pay 
for  well-furnished  quarters  and  equipment. 
Yet  no  one  doubts  for  a  minute  that  the 
saloonkeeper  does  all  this  purely  as  a  business 
venture,  often  furnishing  to  lodges,  labor 
unions  and  other  organizations,  rooms,  heated 
and  lighted,  near  to  the  saloon,  absolutely  free 
of  cost.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  money 
which  pays  for  the  drinks,  plus  the  "attrac- 
tions" provided  by  the  saloon,  would  not  pay 
for  the  attractions  alone  if  the  drinks  were 
absent. 

How  can  we  help  concluding  that  while 
the  saloon  now  acts  as  a  sort  of  poor  man's 
club,  it  is  the  club  which,  taking  advantage 
of  his  poverty  and  of  his  desire  for  intoxi- 
cants, makes  him  pay  more  for  his  social  life 
than  any  other  class  of  people  with  moderate 
or  low  earnings? 

Counter  Attractions. — "The  negative  and 
destructive  methods  employed  in  social  reform 
movements  should  be  accompanied  or  followed 
by  positive  and  constructive  ones."  The  ap- 
plication of  this  sociological  principle  to  the 
saloon  question  calls  for  "some  broad,  rational 
and  practical  method  of  counterbalancing  the 
various  motives  that  lead  men  to  patronize 
the  saloon."'    The  idea  of  a  "substitute,"  how- 

136 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

ever,  in  the  opinion  of  Professor  Barker, 
should  not  be  limited  to  a  rival  business  in 
competition  with  the  saloon — a  social  institu- 
tion run  next  door  or  across  the  street  to 
draw  men  away  from  it,  but  to  satisfying  the 
motives,  so  far  as  they  are  worthy  ones,  or 
indicate  any  real  need,  in  other  and  more  nat- 
ural ways. 

There  are  many  organizations  and  clubs, 
both  philanthropic  and  self-supporting,  which 
provide  healthful  amusement  and  recreation. 
These,  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  serve 
as  counter  attractions  for  the  saloon  to  some 
extent.  But  the  great  need  of  our  large  cities 
is  for  more,  many  more  and  better  ones,  those 
in  which  there  will  be  more  inducements  as 
well  as  more  of  a  feeling  of  freedom'  on  the 
part  of  those  for  whom  they  are  established. 
The  most  successful  of  these  institutions  at 
present  are  coffee  houses,  lunch  rooms,  read- 
ing rooms,  bowling  alleys  and  other  athletic 
games  not  in  connection  with  saloons,  recrea- 
tion centers,  social  settlements,  the  better 
grades  of  theaters  and  parks,  especially  the 
small  parks  in  dense  residence  neighborhoods. 
These  all  supply  means  to  sociability  of  a 
pure  kind  away  from  the  temptations  of  the 
saloon.  But  their  number  is  all  too  meager 
and  the  hours  of  closing  often  too  early. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  to 
some  extent  serve  in  this  capacity,  but  their 
field  is  largely  limited  to  clerical  and  railroad 
men  and  strange  young  men  of  the  better 
class  coming  from  the  country  and  small 
towns.  They  do  not,  to  any  marked  extent, 
137 


SOCIAL   \VK1,FARK   AND  THE   LIQUOR    PKOHLICNF. 

counteract  the  attractions  of  the  saloon  to 
those  who  need  them  most. 

The  essential  principle  of  this  movement 
must  be  the  suppl^^ing  of  healthful  relaxa- 
tion free  from  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
There  can  be  no  temporary  surrender  of  this 
principle  in  favor  of  the  lighter  alcoholics 
or  increased  temptation  to  the  young  is  sure 
to  follow.  If  the  lightest  beer  should  be 
served  in  connection  with  the  best  of  amuse- 
ments it  might  be  a  good  means  of  weaning 
off  the  old  toper,  but  it  would  be  the  fatal 
attracting  influence  that  would  start  thousands 
of  young  men  and  boys  to  acquiring  the  alco- 
hol habit  under  respectable  surroundings. 
Anything  that  does  this  is  sure  to  increase 
later  the  number  of  regular  saloon  patrons 
who  go  there  for  the  liquors  alone.  The  ab- 
sence of  liquor  must  be  complete  or  the  attrac- 
tion will  be  toward,  instead  of  away  from,  the 
saloon. 

The  man  who  takes  his  recreation  and  social 
pleasure  at  the  saloon  feels  that  he  is  paying 
for  what  he  gets.  And  he  certainly  is  paying 
full  price.  The  saloon  is  not  run  for  charity, 
but  for  business.  The  independent  wage 
earner,  even  if  he  is  quite  poor,  knows  this 
and  apprecites  it.  If  he  is  at  all  self-respect- 
ing he  resents  the  doing  of  things  for  him 
by  outsiders  with  an  air  of  charity  about  them. 
The  rightly  organized  counter  attraction  will 
take  note  of  this  principle  by  requiring  that 
the  accommodations  which  it  gives  shall  be 
good  and  that  payment,  at  least  in  part,  shall 
be  insisted  upon.  But  he  himself  must  re- 
138 


THE  SOCIAL   PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

member  that  a  self-respecting  man  cannot  se- 
sure  the  social  enjoyments  he  so  much  needs 
while  so  large  a  share  of  his  meagre  earnings 
go  for  beer. 

The  question  of  providing  counter  attrac- 
tions rightly  belongs  to  the  school,  the  church, 
the  popular  lecture,  the  night  and  trade 
schools,  the  trade  unions,  the  private  clubs  and 
organizations  and  the  thousand  and  one  forms 
of  social  enjoyment  open  to  healthful  society. 
It  is  the  saloon  that,  for  economic  ends,  has 
usurped  this  ground  and  that  tends  to  rtm 
sociability  into  vice. 

The  duty  of  voluntary  organizations  of  this 
kind  is  to  follow  up  and  supplement  more 
radical  restrictive  and  prohibitory  measures ; 
to  supplement  organized  social  force,  govern- 
ment. In  this  new  profession,  or  mission,  a 
force  of  our  best  college  trained  men  and 
women  is  needed  in  our  large  cities  as  social 
workers. 

With  substitution  measures  alone  the  power 
of  the  saloon  to  corrupt  society  will  remain 
practically  unbroken.  Its  power  to  offer  at- 
tractions is  unlimited.  "The  saloons  that  at- 
tract most  men  are  those  that  harbor  gambling 
and  shelter  prostitutes.  The  saloons  with 
concert  halls,  where  so  many  men  and  women 
are  lured  to  drink  and  dance,  have  their  walls 
decorated  with  suggestive  and  indecent  pic- 
tures, and  one  hears  songs  of  the  most  re- 
volting character.  The  whole  atmosphere  re- 
veals a  total  lack  of  modesty  and  common 
decency.'"  No  philanthropic  or  semi-philan- 
thropic, or  even  legitimate  business  enterprise, 

139 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

can  counteract  the  fascination  of  the  average 
saloon,  with  such  "attractions,"  combined  with 
the  appetite  for  liquors,  as  it  offers  to  vast 
numbers  of  people  in  all  grades  of  society.  The 
saloon  is  not  the  "poor  man's  club."  It  is 
primarily  the  drink-loving  man's  club,  whether 
poor  or  rich.  So  long  as  alcohol  is  one  of  the 
forces  in  the  saloon  there  is  and  can  be  no 
substitute  for  it'  furthermore,  social  welfare 
demands  that  there  shall  be  no  such  substitute. 
"Reform  the  Saloon"— The  Subway  Ex- 
periment.— Frequently  eft'orts  to  reform  the 
saloon,  make  it  more  respectable  and  free  it 
from  some  of  its  most  open  objections,  or 
eliminate  private  profits  in  the  retail  sale,  are 
proposed  as  temperance  measures.  These  sug- 
gestions originate  sometimes  from  liquor  men, 
especially  the  dealers  in  the  stronger  liquors, 
who  wish  to  keep  the  trade  in  better  opinion 
before  the  public  by  eliminating  the  most  ap- 
parent evils  and  shutting  down  the  low  grog- 
geries.  Such  efforts  are  only  in  a  restricted 
sense  of  the  nature  of  substitutes,  and  have 
none  of  the  advantages  of  true  counter  at- 
tractions. They  do  have  all  their  objections, 
however,  and  many  others  besides. 

1.  Saloon  reform  fails  to  take  into  account 
the  appetite  for  intoxicants  and  the  opportun- 
ity to  cultivate  it,  that  all  kinds  of  drink,  and 
especially  the  most  "pure,"  afford. 

2.  That  the  quality  of  sociability  afforded 
with  drink  accompaniment  tends  to  become, 
if  it  is  not  already  so,  vicious  and  criminal 
and  a  menace  to  social  welfare. 

3.  That,  as  the  high  license  saloon,  with 

140 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

all  its  brilliant  and  costly  attractions,  needs 
its  accompanying  law-breaking  finishing-off 
places  and  the  dispensary  its  nearby  "blind 
tiger,"  so  even  the  high-grade  saloon  with 
its  private  profits  eliminated,  needs  some  sort 
of  place  where  the  appetite  there  formed  may 
continue  to  be  satisfied  after  the  respectability 
of  the  drinker  has  been  lost, 

4.  The  attractions  about  a  saloon  will  in- 
crease the  amount  of  liquor  sold,  but  the 
liquor  will  not  increase,  but  will  rather  di- 
minish, the  trade  in  "soft  drinks"  and  other 
features  designed  to  take  the  place  of  alco- 
holics. 

The  noted  Subway  Tavern  of  New  York, 
opened  in  August,  1904,  was  intended  as  a 
model  reform  saloon.  It  was  incorporated 
by  a  company  of  men  especially  interested  in 
social  movements.  Their  honest  purpose  was 
to  free  it  from  all  the  evils  of  the  ordinary 
saloon,  except  alcohol.  The  drinks  were  to 
be  pure  and  of  the  best  quality,  but  sold  at 
usual  rates.  The  element  of  private  profits 
was  eliminated  almost  entirely,  the  manager 
being  paid  a  salary,  and  the  profits,  after  a 
certain  fixed  per  cent  to  stockholders,  were 
to  go  toward  establishing  similar  places.  A 
restaurant  and  lunch  counter,  a  room  right 
in  the  front,  where  only  temperance  drinks 
were  sold,  opportunities  for  reading  and  recre- 
ation and  amusement  were  to  make  it  a  "poor 
man's  club,"  where  men  could  drink  alcoholic 
or  non-alcoholic  drinks  without  getting  drunk 
and  could  enjoy  themselves  under  good  moral 
surroundings. 

141 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

The  place  was  opened  with  much  publicity 
and  an  immense  amount  of  public  advertis- 
ing. The  opening  service,  in  which  Bishop 
Potter,  one  of  the  incorporators,  said,  "This 
is  the  greatest  social  movement  New  York 
has  ever  known,"  closed  with  the  doxology 
and  the  bishop's  prayer  of  consecration  upon 
the  new  social  enterprise. 

Although  it  received  more  free  advertising 
than  any  other  institution  ever  started  in  that 
city,  it  did  not  succeed.  The  beer-drinker 
went  back  to  the  ordinary  barroom,  where  he 
could  have  more  freedom  and  get  as  much 
beer  at  the  same  price ;  the  sightseers  and 
curiosity  crowds  that  made  it  run  smoothly  the 
first  few  months  ceased  to  be  attracted  by  the 
novelty.  In  thirteen  months  the  place  was 
sold  out  and  is  being  run  now  as  a  regular 
saloon.  A  new  bar  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
soda  fountain  and  men  may  now  walk  boldly 
in  at  the  front  door  to  get  their  beer  instead 
of  going  furtively  through  the  side  entrance. 

In  the  words  of  the  new  owner,  "You  can't 
follow  the  Lord  and  chase  the  devil  at  the 
same  time."  "The  biggest  patron  of  the  sa- 
loon is  the  man  with  the  biggest  thirst." 

A  typical  near-by  tenement  dweller,  who 
has  lived  in  the  neighborhood  twenty  years, 
seemed  to  catch  the  social  principles  under- 
lying counter  attractions  for  the  saloon  better 
than  did  the  sociological  gentlemen  who  pro- 
moted the  Tavern  when  he  said :  "When  I 
see  how  them  rich  people  spend  money  to  do 
something  for  our  wives  and  children,  I  take 
my  hat  off  to  them,  but  when  they  get  'bit' 

142 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

for  a  thing  like  that,  when  they  let  every  Tom, 
Dick  and  Harry  come  along  and  get  them 
to  put  up  money  for  that  kind  of  a  thing  and 
think  we  want  it,  then  I  knozv  they  don't  or 
don't  want  to,  understand  ns — and  I  get  dis- 
couraged." 

Substitution  as  a  Temperance  Measure.  — 
The  modern  effort  to  find  a  satisfactory  "sub- 
stitute" for  the  saloon  is  a  recognition  of  the 
part  that  the  sociability  source  has  to  play 
in  the  whole  vast  liquor  problem.  It  is  well 
for  the  temperance  cause  that  this  is  being 
better  known,  so  that  constructive  efforts  by 
social  service  workers  may  accompany  and 
follow  the  repressive  and  restrictive  measures 
made  necessary  by  the  other  three  sources. 

Substitution  aims  directly  at  one  of  the 
foundations  of  the  evil  and  at  but  one  of  them. 
But  it  is  intimately  connected  with  the  problem 
of  better  homes  for  the  poor  of  our  great 
cities,  with  home  and  public  sanitation,  in- 
struction in  the  values  of  food  and  in  cooking, 
the  question  of  wages  and  hours  of  labor  and 
other  industrial  and  metropolitan  problems. 
Much  can  be  done  in  these  respects  to  keep 
men  from  ever  going  to  the  saloon ;  far  more 
can  be  accomplished  when  the  saloon,  as  the 
unjust  competitor  with  these  righteous  efforts, 
is  driven  out  by  organized  force.  To  the 
extent  that  substitution  is  or  can  be  successful 
it  is  a  decided  temperance  measure  and  worthy 
of  the  greatest  support. 

But  it  takes  into  consideration  only  one  of 
the  four  sources  of  the  actual  liquor  problem. 

I .     The  most  persistent  source  of  the  liquor 

143 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

evil,  the  taste  for  alcoholics,  is  left  practi- 
cally untouched.  The  improvement  of  the 
workingman's  home  life,  better  cooking,  bet- 
ter sanitation,  reduced  hours  of  work,  will  to 
some  extent  reduce  the  desire  for  stimulants 
which  sometimes  leads  to  the  acquiring  of  the 
appetite.  But  only  to  a  degree.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  many  in  the  well-to-do  and 
many  in  the  middle  classes,  people  with  the 
best  of  home  life,  every  opportunity  for  good 
cooking,  etc.,  yet  fall  back  upon  the  frequent 
use  of  intoxicants. 

2.  The  economic  source,  the  profits  of  the 
dealer,  cannot  be  touched  by  this  method.  In 
fact,  it  but  accentuates  this  source.  It  makes 
the  saloonkeeper,  backed  by  the  brewer,  more 
intense  to  secure  new  trade,  encourages  him 
to  ofiFer  more  temptations  to  the  young 
and  out-attract  the  most  successful  counter 
attractions.  Sidney  Webb  has  applied 
Gresham's  law  of  currency,  that  bad  money 
will  drive  out  good  money  when  both  are  in 
circulation,  to  all  forms  of  competition.  Count- 
erfeit money  must  be  "prohibited"  before  good 
money  will  circulate.  The  sale  of  liquors 
must  be  removed  before  social  clubs,  settle- 
ments, reading  rooms,  healthful  athletic  as- 
sociations and  Y.  M,  C.  A.'s  can  do  their 
best  work.  It  is  the  saloon  which  is  the 
counterfeit  social  center;  the  others  are  the 
proper  fields  for  the  expression  of  the  social 
self. 

3.  The  legal  sanction  of  the  government  is 
upon  the  saloon  rather  than  upon  the  "sub- 
stitute" as  matters  now  stand.     It  takes  from 

144 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

the  saloon  a  $500  or  $1,000  license  fee  to 
pay  city  expenses,  provide  a  strong-  police 
force  to  take  care  of  the  crime  product  of  the 
saloon,  and  relieve  private  taxation ;  in  doing 
so  it  gives  the  dealer  a  just  cause  to  demand 
protection  from  irritating  enforcement  of  re- 
strictive laws.  The  license  policy  gives  the 
saloon  an  undue  social  prominence,  while  the 
"substitute"  must  struggle  for  a  precarious 
public  support.  Further,  what  law  pronounces 
as  right  most  people  accept  at  once  as  right 
and  permissable  for  them  in  conduct.  Every 
effort  to  win  people  away  from  the  saloon 
has  to  meet  this  attitude. 

Notwithstanding  its  limitations,  work  which 
amounts  to  substitution  is  a  most  valuable  tem- 
perance measure,  first,  as  a  means  of  co-oper- 
ating with  and  supplementing  legal  destruction 
of  the  saloon  and  its  evils  and,  second,  as  a 
part  in  the  broad  general  cause  of  social  ad- 
vancement just  where  it  is  most  needed.  But 
for  the  ordinary  American  stand-up  saloon 
where  men  go  to  drink  as  their  chief  pur- 
pose there  is  and  should  be  no  substitute. 

The  following  bit  of  recent  testimony  is 
exceedingly  valuable  as  showing  the  attitude 
of  that  class  of  men  most  dependent  of  all 
upon  the  saloon  for  their  social  enjoyment  if 
they  are  to  have  any  at  all.  Mr.  C.  M. 
Stocking,  of  Minneapolis,  superintendent  of 
the  Union  City  Mission,  on  December  4,  1905, 
conducted  a  meeting  of  150  laboring  men, 
most  of  whom  lived  in  lodging  houses,  and  all 
of  whom  were  regular  drinkers.  The  object 
was  a  free-for-all  discussion  of  the  saloon  and 

145 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

substitutes  for  it.  Specific  questions,  after 
abundant  discussion,  were  voted  upon  as  fol- 
lows :  "Do  men  first  go  to  the  saloon  to  enjoy 
a  social  hour  or  do  they  go  there  to  take  a 
drink?"    The  vote  was,  drink  50,  social  hour 

"If  all  saloons  in  this  city  ceased  to  sell 
liquor,  but  kept  every  other  attraction  they 
now  have,  could  they  retain  one-tenth  of  their 
customersf"     Only  eight  voted  affirmatively. 

"How  many  of  the  men  here  to-night  go  to 
the  saloon  for  the  sake  of  the  liquor  sold 
there?"  One  hundred  and  five  hands  were 
raised. 

"Can  you  suggest  any  substitute  for  the  sa- 
loon?" The  vote  stood,  Yes  30,  No  50.  On 
further  discussion  a  clean-kept  lodging  house 
with  opportunity  for  amusements  at  a  reason- 
able rate  seem  to  be  most  desired.  A  few 
wanted  places  where  pure  liquors  could  be 
sold.  But  all  agreed  upon  one  thing — that 
nothing  furnishing  the  accommodations  and 
attractions  and  comforts  of  the  saloon  with 
intoxicating  drinks  left  out  would  be  of  any 
special  interest  to  them.  The  other  things 
were  good,  but  they  would  not  take  the  place 
of  the  drink. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  Sociability  Source  of  Intemperance. 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"   1-7. 
Peabody,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  Forum,  21, 

595- 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  90. 
146 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form,"  184-188. 

Stelzel,  "The  Working  Man  and  Social  Prob- 
lems,"   40-46. 

Koren,    "Economic   Aspects   of   the   Liquor    Prob- 
lem," 210-240. 
The  Saloon  as  a  Social  Center. 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"   1-24. 

Wheeler,   "Prohibition,"  90-92. 

Peabody,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  Forum,  21, 

595- 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form,"   184-188. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's  Maga- 
zine   (Apr.,   1907),  28,  575. 

Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem," 210-240. 

'  Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  90. 

"  The  Poor  Man's  Club." 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  45-53. 

Stelzel,  "The  Working  Man  and  Social  Prob- 
lems,"   37-50. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem," 364-367. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's,  28,  575. 

Barker,  "The   Saloon  Problem,"  184-185. 

Counter  Attractions. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form,"  179-195. 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  25-44,  ^96- 
207,    216-242. 

Peabody,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  Forum,  21, 

595- 
Smith,   "Liquor  and  Labor,"   Catholic  World,  47, 

539- 
Stelzel,  "The  Workingman  and  Social  Problems," 

48-50. 
'  Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem,"  180. 
"  Barker,  "The  Saloon   Problem,"    186. 
"  Reform  the  Saloon." 
"The  Temperance  Problem  and  the  Subway  Tav- 
ern,"   International    Magazine,    Jan.,    1905. 
147 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

"Collapse  of  the  Subway  Tavern,"  National  Tem- 
perance  Advocate,  Oct.,   1905. 
Independent,   June   22,    1905. 
Substitution  as  a  Temperance  Measure. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

^79-195-  „  ,        „ 

Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  25-30,  216- 
242. 

Stelzel,  "The  Workingman  and  Social  Problems," 
48-SO. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  90-92. 

Smith,  "Liquor  and  Labor,"  Catholic  World,  47, 
539. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem," 393-407- 


148 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

The  Social  Ethics  of  the  Saloon.— Just  what 
is  right  or  wrong  in  regard  to  the  various 
chases  of  the  Hquor  problem  can  not  always  b-^- 
stated.  Neither  the  personal  act  of  drinking 
nor  the  social  one  of  making  and  selling 
should  be  measured  ethically  by  an  arbitrary 
standard.  It  is  not  in  itself  wrong  to  drink  a 
glass  of  beer;  even  when  it  does  contain  4  per 
cent,  alcohol  which  science  regards  as  a  poi- 
son ;  it  may  be  permissible,  or  it  may  be  a  vile 
wrong.  It  depends  upon  whether  or  not  the 
glass  of  beer,  or  the  later  ones  it  may  call  for, 
injures  that  particular  drinker  or  those  de- 
pendent upon  him.  The  sale  and  the  manu- 
facturing for  sale,  the  social  acts,  should  like- 
wise be  judged  by  a  standard  similar  in  char- 
acter and  no  less  arbitrary  than  the  welfare  of 
the  social  unit  or  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 

The  saloon  stands  for  both  the  "habit"  and 
the  "trade."  It  is  w^here  the  former  is  created 
and  gratified  by  the  ordinary  business  sagacity 
of  the  latter.  Its  results  are  readily  seen 
in  the  mass,  free  from  exceptions.  It  there- 
fore affords  a  concrete  example  of  the  whole 
problem,  ethically,  although  by  no  means  is  it  a 
complete  representative  of  the  power  of  the 
liquor  trade  economically  or  politically.     We 

149 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM, 

should  judge  the  saloon,  in  brief,  by  a  social 
ethical  standard  that  will  permit  the  greatest 
possible  degree  of  individual  freedom,  to 
would-be  user  and  dealer,  conformable  to  pub- 
lic welfare  as  a  whole.  This  standard  is 
zvhether  its  acts  and  its  product  bring  the 
greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number. 

The  saloon  is  good  or  bad,  relatively,  as  it 
leads  toward  or  from  this  standard.  The  self- 
benefit  or  injury  to  the  immediate  maker  or 
user  is  not  a  sufficiently  broad  unit  with 
which  to  measure  an  institution  so  fixed  in 
current  social  life.  It  would  not  be  right  to 
deny  to  a  majority  a  healthful  or  merely  a  rel- 
atively non-injurious  pleasure  on  account  of 
the  intemperance  and  excesses  of  a  few.  It  is 
the  great  average  run  of  normal,  inevitable 
consequences  upon  the  family,  the  dependent 
friends  and  the  community  that  condemns  the 
saloon  and  the  drinking  habit  as  socially  bad. 

One  of  the  greatest  authorities  on  social 
ethics  says  that  conduct  in  relation  to  our  fel- 
lows is  "good  or  bad  according  to  its  assumed 
effects  upon  the  largest  range  of  associations 
that  we  can  take  into  account.'"  John  Stuart 
Mills  says  "The  standard  of  morality  is  the 
rules  and  precepts  of  conduct  which  procure 
the  greatest  happiness  in  quantity  and  quality 
for  all  mankind."'  Certainly  the  saloon  takes 
into  account  only  a  very  small  range  of  human 
needs  and  associations.  For  the  sake  of  fur- 
nishing a  choice  of  livelihood  to  a  few  thou- 
sand men  and  gratifying  a  created  and  abnor- 
mal physical  craving,  for  satisfying  a  very 
normal    and    fundamental    desire,    sociability 

150 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

and  good-fellowship,  in  a  questionable  way 
it  injures  millions  of  non-indulging  women, 
children  and  even  men,  as  well  as  those  who 
actually  become  victims  to  the  habit,  physic- 
ally, financially,  morally,  blighting  them  for 
this  world  and  for  eternity.  It  throws  upon 
society  a  burden  in  the  care  of  paupers,  crim- 
inals, and  defective  humanity  greater  than  that 
caused  by  any  other  one  source  and  degrades 
the  public  conscience  by  permitting  the  gov- 
ernment to  take  a  share  of  its  profits  as  a  small 
compensation  for  the  immeasurable  burdens 
it  entails  upon  the  present  and  future  genera- 
tions. Balancing  by  the  number  and  quality 
of  associations  to  be  taken  into  account  we  get 
a  result  which  condemns  ethically  both  the  sa- 
loon and  the  drinking  custom. 

Freedom  to  the  dealer  in  the  choice  of  a 
trade  is  offset  by  the  dangers  and  losses  which 
that  trade  brings  the  community.  It  is  not 
a  difficult  matter  to  enter  another  business; 
it  is  not  a  great  surrender  of  personal  liberty 
to  the  public  good.  It  is  not  a  question 
of  reducing  the  number  of  opportunities 
open  for  the  earning  of  a  livelihood;  if 
so,  the  overthrow  of  the  saloon  might  be  a 
more  serious  disturbance  to  business  than  it  is. 
The  sum  total  of  public  wealth  would  be 
greater  without  this  parasite  upon  economic 
welfare;  therefore  each  man's  share,  including 
the  ex-saloon-keepers,  v.'ould  be  greater.  In- 
creased consumption  of  legitimate  articles 
would  call  for  labor  in  production  and  sale 
that  will  far  more  than  take  up  that  spent  in 
the  production  of  liquors. 

151 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

The  financial  profit  to  the  individual  is  also 
offset  by  the  moral  and  financial  losses  to  the 
community  and  by  the  fact  that  no  trade  has  a 
right  to  exist,  irrespective  of  its  financial  pros- 
perity, that  makes  its  profits  out  of  individual 
or  community  vices. 

The  happiness  of  the  drinker  in  his  freedom 
to  drink  is  balanced  by  that  of  his  wife  and 
children,  an  average  of  four  to  one  in  quan- 
tity, and  equal  in  quality,  to  say  nothing  of 
that  of  the  public  which  must  share  in  the  re- 
sults of  his  conduct. 

It  is  only  in  its  sociability  features  that  the 
saloon  gets  anv  real  ethical  support.  Here  it 
has  seized  upon  a  neglected  factor ;  it  has  had 
handed  over  to  it  by  the  community  the  mo- 
nopoly of  the  social  life  of  the  majority  of 
American  wage-earners.^  They  find  in  it  al- 
most their  only  recreation,  relaxation  and 
freedom  from  care.  The  saloon  gives  them 
more  comforts,  companionship,  papers,  music, 
amusement,  games,  and  even  better  food  than 
they  have  at  home  or  in  the  lodging  house. 
Thus  it  furnishes  them  a  material  and  so- 
ciability uplift;  with  no  other  and  worse  feat- 
ures the  saloon  would  be  an  ethical  uplift,  also. 
It  supplies  this  satisfaction  not  always  by,  but 
sometimes  in  spite  of  alcohol  and  intoxication, 
although  the  "booze"  is  the  one  indispensable 
factor  in  procuring  thein. 

But  in  taking  his  recreation  in  the  saloon 
the  workingman  is  depriving  his  family  of 
their  same,  equal  right  and  share  in  relaxa- 
tion and  escape  from  the  burdens  of  the  day. 
Women  and  children  must  remain  at  home  or 

152 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

go  upon  the  streets.  It  thus  encourages  self- 
ishness and  leads  to  the  blighting  of  the  home, 
as  well  as  taking  the  money  that  might  pro- 
cure happiness  for  all.  Spencer,  the  great 
apostle  of  personal  liberty,  who  regarded  it  as 
a  virtue  to  be  preserved  above  all  others,  yet 
insists  upon  its  being  limited  by  the  necessity 
of  granting  to  others  the  same  equal  rights 
and  privileges.  Saloon  sociability  is  essentially 
contrary  to  this  principle;  it  is  always  selfish. 
With  the  famil}^  as  a  basis  it  is  a  clear  case  of 
suffering  by  the  majority  to  gratify  the  ques- 
tionable pleasures  of  a  minority. 

In  quality  the  sociability  found  in  the  sa- 
loon is  usually  worse  than  none  at  all.  The 
average  saloon  is  gross  and  vulgar.  The  air 
is  bad,  the  conversation  profane  and  obscene. 
The  moral  effects  aside  from  the  drinks  are 
usually  unwholesome.  "The  saloons  that  at- 
tract most  men  are  those  that  harbor  gambling 
and  shelter  prostitutes.'"  In  the  words  of  a 
prominent  liquor  paper  bent  on  "elevating  the 
trade,"  "The  average  saloon  is  out  of  line 
with  public  sentiment.  .  .  .  It  is  a  resort 
for  all  tough  characters,  and  in  the  South  for 
all  idle  negroes.  It  is  generally  on  a  promi- 
nent street  and  is  usually  run  by  a  sport  who 
cares  only  for  the  almighty  dollar.  From  this 
resort  the  drunken  man  starts  reeling  to  his 
home ;  at  this  resort  the  local  fights  are  in- 
dulged in.  It  is  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  so- 
cietv  and  a  disgrace  to  the  wine  and  spirit 
trade."^ 

Further  than  this  "the  public  saloon  and  sa- 
loon system  is  a  vast  organized  inciter  of  hu- 

153 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

man  appetite.  It  is  an  omnipresent,  publicly 
sactioned  temptation  to  evil.  It  exists  not  be- 
cause man,  by  nature,  must  drink,  but  be- 
cause, by  proper  incentives,  man  can  be  made 
to  drink,  and  there  is  money  in  selling  it  to 
him.  The  craving  of  large  numbers  of  people 
for  alcoholic  liquors  is  no  more  to  be  charged 
to  the  Creator  than  is  the  craving  of  certain 
people  for  opium,  or  of  many  for  tobacco,  or 
the  irresistible  tendency  of  others  to  utter 
themselves  in  copius  profanity.  These,  and 
other  like  them,  are  strictly  acquired  habits, 
perverted  and  evil  habits,  acquired  in  associa- 
tion with  companions  of  evil." ' 

The  fact  remains  that  the  saloon  furnishes 
pleasure,  both  the  happiness  of  association  and 
the  stim.ulating  effects  of  the  drink  itself,  to  a 
large  number  of  people  who  do  not  use  it  to 
excess  and  who  do  not  apparently  leave  any 
burden  on  society — the  moderate  drinking 
business  man,  of  the  middle  classes  and  the 
men  of  means.  It  is  shown'  that  50  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  population  of  Boston  patronize  the 
saloons  of  that  city  every  day ;  in  Chicago  the 
daily  patronage  is  greater  than  50  per  cent,  of 
its  2,000.000  population.  Not  all  of  these  are 
dependent  upon  the  saloon  for  their  social  en- 
joyment. For  them,  therefore,  the  restric- 
tion that  would  come  from  the  expulsion  of 
the  saloon  would  not  be  a  serious  one;  they 
may  well  be  compelled  to  yield  this  one  privi- 
lege in  the  interests  of  the  public  who  must 
bear  the  burdens  of  those  who  do  go  to  excess. 
The  toxic  dangers  of  alcohol  are  so  great, 
the  social  vices  coming  from  the  saloon  are  so 

154 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

insidious,  its  political  influence  so  corrupting  to 
the  state  and  the  type  of  citizenship  it  creates 
so  bad  that  the  pleasures  of  even  the  most 
moderate  drinkers  become  relatively  unim- 
portant and  should  not  be  considered  in  face 
of  the  larger  needs  of  the  community.  "A 
serious  thing  it  may  be  to  curtail  the  pleasures 
of  mankind ;  but  is  it  not  far  more  serious  to 
continue  pleasures  that  can  be  had  only  by  the 
continuance  of  conditions  that  are  certain  ever 
and  everywhere,  to  entail  upon  countless  thou- 
sands woes  that  are  immeasurable?  The  issue 
is  not  the  wine-cup  of  which  poets  sang,  but 
the  saloon  whose  horrors  only  a  Dante  could 
fittingly  describe?'" 

The  Attitude  of  the  Church.— The  three 
great  organized  moral  forces  of  society  are 
the  home,  the  school  and  the  church.  Upon 
their  welfare  the  ethical  standards  of  the  State 
depend.  Government  recognizes  the  ethical 
need  when  it  protects  these  institutions  from 
the  encroachments  of  the  saloon  whose  teach- 
ings are  found,  in  practice  and  principle,  to 
run  directly  counter  to  their  type  of  instruc- 
tion. 

The  church  is,  or  ought  to  be,  pre-eminently 
the  leader  in  the  righting  of  social,  as  well  as 
individual,  wrongs.  In  it  is  found  "the  high- 
est form  of  moral  organization  known  to  man. 
In  it  the  best  impulses  and  teachings  of  the 
home,  and  the  noblest  and  purest  unfoldings 
of  the  school,  find  their  sweetest  and  ripest 
fruitage,  their  development  nearest  the  di- 
vine." ' 

The  chief  aim  of  the  church  is  to  make  men 

155 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AXD  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

better,  both  individually  and  collectively.  Its 
methods  are,  and  must  continue  to  be,  "moral 
suasion,"  not  force,  or  law.  It  would  defeat 
itself  if  it  undertook  to  compel  men  to  be 
good.  But  it  must  hold  up  the  standard  of 
right  for  the  individual  and  for  organized  so- 
ciety and  government  incessantly  or  it  misses 
the  object  for  which  it  exists.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  hopeful  signs  of  early  success  in  the  anti- 
liquor  movement  that  the  church  has  recently 
com.e  to  recognize  its  social  responsibility  in 
grappling  with  the  saloon  and  the  political  and 
business  forces  back  of  it. 

In  its  work  the  church  is  in  direct  conflict 
with  the  saloon.  Between  it,  aiming  to  build 
up  the  morality  of  the  community,  and  the 
liquor  trade  as  it  actually  exists  in  most  places, 
there  is  nothing  in  common  but  inherent  an- 
tagonism. Only  the  briefest  possible  outline 
of  the  attitude  of  the  church  can  be  given  here. 

1.  The  teachings  of  the  Bible  as  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Christian  religion  are  essentially 
against  personal  intemperance,  the  offering  of 
temptation  to  use  strong  drink  and  the  reap- 
ing of  private  or  public  profit  from  the  sale  of 
intoxicants. 

2.  In  accordance  with  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples and  its  own  experience  the  church  in 
America  has  come,  practically,  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  total  abstinence  for  the  individual  is 
the  only  right  and  safe  method  of  conduct 
It  recognizes  the  higher  freedom  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  be  governed  according  to  an  edu- 
cated conscience  yet,  because  of  the  dangers 
which  lie  in  the  alcohol  habit  when  once  ac- 

156 


THE  {LTHICAL  PHASE. 

quired,  and  the  personal  responsibility  for  ex- 
ample toward  others,  it  believs  that  this  is 
the  right  course  of  personal  conduct  for 
Christians.  As  exceptions  much  of  the  teach- 
inq-s  of  the  Episcopal  and  Catholic  and  a  few 
minor  churches  is  for  moderalion,  but  there 
are  very  many  in  all  these  churches  who  be- 
lieve absolutely  in  total  abstinence. 

3.  Almost  every  Protestant  church  believes 
in  positive  exclusion  of  liquor  dealers  from 
membership  and  most  of  them  will  not  receive 
contributions  from  the  trade.  Even  in  the 
Catholic  church  there  is  a  growing  demand 
that  "Catholics  everywhere  get  out  and  keep 
out  of  the  saloon  business." 

4.  In  regard  to  the  traffic  Protestant 
churches,  with  the  exception  of  the  Episcopal 
and  a  few  of  the  smaller  denominations,  de- 
clare for  complete  prohibition.  The  Episcopal 
favors  a  very  high  license  policy,  with  the 
hope  of  reducing  the  evils  of  the  traffic  in  ac- 
cordance with  its  emphasis  of  personal  mod- 
eration rather  than  total  abstinence.  The 
Catholic  church  makes  no  official  declaration 
as  to  the  means  of  control  but  the  number  of 
ministers  favoring  severe  restriction  and  pro- 
hibition is  constantly  increasing.  This  is  sig- 
nificant as  the  experience  of  the  church  is 
largely  among  the  classes  which  are  more  per- 
sonally interested  in  the  trade  and  who  have 
inherited  drinking  customs  than  the  work  of 
the  Protestant  churches  has  been.  Experience 
is  here  teaching  the  same  lesson — that  the 
liquor  trade  mu.st  be  removed  if  the  church  is 
to  do  its  best  work. 

157 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AXD  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

5.  That  "it  can  never  be  legalized  without 
sin"  is  a  settled  principle  among  the  leading 
evangelical  churches.  Official  declarations 
emphasize  this  more  and  more  strongly  and 
urge  upon  members  the  necessity  of  living  up 
to  it  in  practice.  They  specify  the  renting  of 
property  for  saloon  purposes,  signing  of  peti- 
tions for  license,  voting  for  license,  for  license 
or  taxation  policies,  for  men  favoring  them  or 
for  political  organizations  and  parties  that  sup- 
port the  traffic  or  the  license  policy. 

6.  Recognizing  the  political  source  of  the 
liquor  power  several  prominent  church  or- 
ganizations have  declared  clearly  as  to  what 
constitutes  good  moral  conduct  on  the  part  of 
Christians  politically  as  regards  the  liquor 
problem.  They  recognize  that  it  is  not  the 
function  of  the  church  to  dictate  how  a  man 
shall  vote  but  they  indicate  clearly  for  what 
political  principals  and  organizations  or  par- 
ties he  ought  not  vote.  The  action  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  may  be  taken  as 
reflecting  the  ethical  standard  of  the  largest 
Protestant  church  in  America  in  this  respect. 
It  states  that  "We  record  our  deliberate  judg- 
ment that  no  candidate  for  any  office  which  in 
any  wa}-  may  have  to  do  with  the  liquor  traffic 
has  a  right  to  expect,  nor  ought  to  receive, 
the  support  of  Christian  men  so  long  as  he 
stands  committed  to  the  liquor  interests  or  re- 
fuses to  put  himself  in  an  attitude  of  open  hos- 
tility to  the  saloon."  * 

The    Saloon    Its    Chief     Competitor. — The 

more  the  church  learns  to  appreciate  its  social 

mission  in  the  community  and  to  improve  the 

conditions   which   are   a   menace  to   its  work, 

158 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

the  more  it  learns  that  the  saloon  is  its  heaviest 
competitor  for  men,  especially  young  men.  It 
has  seized  upon  a  function  heretofore  largely 
neglected  by  the  church,  the  providing  of  the 
means  and  place  of  sociability  for  wage-earn- 
ers, young  men  and  new  arrivals  in  the  cities. 
The  brewers  equip  immense  amusement  parks 
at  heavy  expense,  provide  the  games  and  ex- 
citements as  well  as  the  beer,  and  get  an  at- 
tendance of  thousands  every  evening  during 
the  summer.  When  the  church  takes  up  this 
work,  as  it  is  now  beginning  to  do  slowly, 
but  in  earnest,  in  its  settlement  work,  its  clubs, 
men's  Bible  classes,  gymnasiums,  Y.  M.  C. 
A.'s,  etc.,  the  saloon  becomes  resentful  and 
attempts  to  discredit  the  church,  defame  its 
ministers  and  counteract  its  labors  to  win  men. 
The  saloon  is  as  well,  if  not  better  equipped 
for  handling  large  numbers  of  men,  than  is 
the  church.  Throughout  the  country  there 
are  236,000  places  where  liquor  is  sold  openly^ 
as  compared  with  the  207,707  churches  of  all 
denominations.  In  1906  the  total  number  of 
liquor  dealers  was  283,703^  and  the  ministers 
of  all  churches,  protestant,  catholic,  Jewish, 
etc.,  was  159,503.2  Frequently  the  church 
buildings  are  grouped  together  in  the  better 
parts  of  the  cities  and  towns  and  are  hard  to 
reach  by  those  Vv'ho  need  their  help  most.  The 
tendency  of  the  brewers,  the  backers  of  the 
saloon,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  establish  a 
grog  shop,  when  it  is  not  positively  excluded 
by  law,  in  every  separate  section  or  commun- 
ity where  it  can  possibly  support  itself  or 
create  a  new  trade  for  itself.  The  saloon  goes 
where  the  people  are ;  the  church  seems  to  ex- 
169 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

pect  the  masses  to  accommodate  themselves 
to  it. 

Church  membership  increased  at  the  rate  of 
2.7  per  cent. ;  while  the  increase  in  the  con- 
sumption of  liquors  was  10.35  per  cent.  The 
saloon  runs  from  16  to  20  hours  per  day  for 
six,  or  even  seven  days  a  week.  The  church 
is  open  one  whole  day  and  an  average  of  two 
or  three  nights  more  each  week. 

In  Boston  a  few  years  ago  careful  investi- 
gation ^  showed  that  the  daily  patronage  of 
the  saloons,  counting  "repeaters,"  visitors  and 
people  living  in  the  suburbs,  as  50  per  cent,  of 
the  total  population  of  the  city.  They  spent 
on  an  average  ten  cents  each  visit.  At  the 
same  time  the  patronage  of  all  such  institu- 
tions as  may  properly  be  regarded  as  furnish- 
ing competition  with  the  saloon,  such  as  read- 
ing rooms,  coffee-clubs,  and  lunch  rooms  not 
intended  exclusively  as  eating  places,  etc.,  was 
76,268,  also  including  "repeaters"  and  people 
from  out-of-town.  The  average  daily  attend- 
ance at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  1061.*  The  pro- 
portionate attendance  was  1  at  the  places  free 
from  alcohol  to  3.3  at  the  saloons. 

In  Chicago  there  are  1.000  churches,  chap- 
els and  missions  of  all  kinds.  There  are,  as 
counter  attractions,  7,200  saloons  ;  the  former 
are  open  from  one  to  three  nights  per  week 
and  all  day  Sunday;  the  latter  run  from  15  to 
24  hours  a  day  and  seven  days  in  the  week, 
some  never  closing  the  year  around.  If  the 
average  attendance  at  the  saloons  is  the  same 
as  in  Boston,  that  is  50  per  cent  of  the  total 
population,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  think  it 
lower,  there  are  1,000.000  visits  made  daily  to 
160 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

these  saloons.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  all  its  de- 
partments shows  an  average  daily  attendance 
of  3,351,  including  repeaters  and  men  who 
live  in  the  suburbs. 

It  has  been  carefully  estimated'  that  of  the 
14,250,000  young  men  in  the  United  States 
between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty-five 
9,059,000,  or  63.5  per  cent,  never  attend 
church  at  any  time.  The  remaining  36.5  per 
cent  includes  all  those  wdio  go  occasionally, 
merely  for  amusement,  as  well  as  the  mem- 
bers and  active  w^orkers.  "It  is  safe  to  say 
that  95  per  cent  of  the  young  men  do  little  or 
nothing  in  an  aggressive  way  to  promote  the 
organized  Christian  work  of  the  churches."** 
At  the  present  time  there  are  not  fewer  than 
16,000,000  young  men  in  the  country,  of 
which  10,160,000  never  enter  a  church  door 
and  of  which  900,000  constitute  the  actual 
Christian  working  force. 

In  marked  contrast  is  the  vast  number  that 
visit  saloons,  some  regularly,  some  only 
occasionally.  It  is  not  confined  within  a  sin- 
gle million.  Figures  are  not  available,  but  in 
saloon  towns,  and  particularly  in  the  larger 
centers,  hundreds  may  be  found  in  drinking 
places  to  one  in  the  churches,  the  same  even- 
ing. A  prominent  Secretary  in  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association"  says :  "On  Sun- 
day evening,  February  26,  1899,  a  careful 
count  was  made  of  the  men  in  a  Madison 
Street  saloon  (in  Chicago)  at  7  o'clock.  The 
number  was  524,  and  during  the  next  two 
hours  480  more  men  entered.  At  one  of  the 
billiard  tables  young  men  six  deep  on  all  sides 
were  engaged  in  open  gambling.  Private 
161 


SOCIAL   WELFxVRE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

stairways  connect  this  saloon  with  the  vilest 
theatre  in  the  city.  There  are  3000  billiard 
and  pool  rooms  in  the  city,  generally  adjacent 
to  or  a  part  of  a  saloon."  Another  Secretary 
reports  an  investigation  of  fifteen  saloons  in 
Peoria,  111.,  in  which,  on  a  Sunday  night,  875 
young  men  were  found  in  one  hour  and  fifteen 
minutes.  How  fifteen  ministers  of  that  city 
would  have  rejoiced  to  have  seen  those  875 
able  fellows  scattered  through  their  aud- 
iences ! 

The  fact  is  too  evident  to  be  avoided  that 
the  saloon  has  a  stronger  hold  upon  the  young 
men  of  America  than  has  the  combined  force 
of  all  the  churches.  Further,  it  has  developed 
and  is  developing  an  environment  from  which 
it  is  more  and  m.ore  difficult  to  lift  men,  and 
which  makes  them  less  useful  after  they  are 
reached.  "Environment  afTects  conversion 
before  and  after." 

The  efifect  of  the  presence  of  the  legalized 
saloon  produces  a  dangerous  reaction  upon 
the  church  itself.  It  can  not  escape  complete- 
ly the  demoralizing  ethical  effects  of  the  liquor 
business  upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  its 
own  members  even  when  its  voice  is  clear  and 
decisive  against  it.  Since  the  liquor  trade  is  a 
part  of  current  social  order  church  members 
get  mixed  up  with  it  in  every-day  business 
relations,  social  connections  and  especially  in 
political  affairs.  The  saloon  maintains  its  po- 
sition largely  because  of  its  licensed  respect- 
ability. The  effect  is  seen  in  the  halting  atti- 
tude of  many  congregations  toward  practical 
anti-liquor  work,  in  their  fear  of  radicalism, 
in  a  sort  of  chronic  horror  of  the  political 
162 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

phases  of  the  question,  in  decrease  in  spiritual 
power  and  influence  and  in  the  distaste  of 
many  strong  men  outside  of  the  church,  for 
church  relations  of  any  kind.  The  church  can 
not  realize  its  own  proper  place  of  usefulness 
in  the  community  while  the  saloon  continues 
to  be  a  competing  legal  institution. 

The  Traffic  in  "The  Foreign  Field."— Scarce- 
ly less  important  than  the  competition  that 
the  saloon  offers  to  the  church  at  home  is  the 
way  in  which  the  liquor  traffic  handicaps  its 
missions  in  the  foreign  field.  Whether  our 
civilization  is  to  be  a  benefit  or  a  curse  to  the 
Phillipinos,  to  Hawaii  and  in  the  mission 
fields  of  Africa,  where  the  "child-races"  and 
semi-civilized  are  found,  no  less  than  in  the 
older  countries  of  China,  Japan,  India  and 
elsewhere,  depends  upon  whether  American 
vices,  and  chiefly  American  liquor,  are  to  con- 
tinue to  accompany  the  flag  and  the  mis- 
sionary. 

Before  our  type  of  civilization  was  carried 
to  these  countries  half  of  the  world  was  under 
total  abstinence  religions,  Hindu,  Buddhist 
and  Mohammedan,  a  clear  indication  that  the 
desire  for  intoxicants  is  not  a  universal  human 
instinct  that  must  be  gratified,  but  a  vice  that 
even  these  religions  condemn  as  morally 
wrong. 

Those  nations  that  were  not  held  to  absti- 
nence by  religious  influence  or  laws,  more  or 
less  strictly  enforced,  and  growing  out  of  the 
native  religions,  w^ere  mostly  temperate  in  the 
use  of  such  intoxicants  as  they  had.  The  Chi- 
nese have  frequently  passed  prohibitory  laws 
and  so  there  has  been  little  drunkenness  in 
163 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

that  country  except  where  the  people  come 
into  contact  with  Western  commerce.  It  is 
to  the  lasting-  disgrace  of  Great  Britain  that 
the  opium  trade  was  forced  upon  China  at  the 
mouth  of  the  cannon  and  to  the  great  credit 
of  the  present  rulers  of  China  that  they 
have  passed  a  graduated  prohibitory  law  now 
rapidly  becoming  effective.  In  India  the  Eng- 
lish trade  has  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  liquor 
business  but  American  consuls  are  laboring 
hard  to  give  the  American  brewers  a  fair 
opening.  Rev.  E.  C.  B.  Hallam,  a  missionary, 
says,  "In  eight  years  the  increase  of  the  liquor 
traffic  in  Bengal  was  135  per  cent.  In  the 
central  provinces  it  was  100  per  cent  in  ten 
years.  In  Ceylon  the  revenue  from  drink  is 
almost  14  per  cent  of  the  total  revenue.  Mr. 
Cain,  ex-member  of  the  British  Parliament, 
says,  'All  moral  considerations  are  swamped 
in  the  effort  to  obtain  revenue.  The  worst  and 
rottenest  excise  system  in  the  civilized  world 
is  that  of  India.'  "^  While  most  native  races 
have  native  drinks  more  or  less  intoxicating, 
according  to  Dr.  Crafts,-  the  Ainos  of  Japan 
are  the  only  race  of  heathen  drunkards  who 
were  not  made  such  by  civilization.  Drunken- 
ness is  with  them,  as  with  ancient  worshippers 
of  Bacchus,  a  religious  ecstacy.  "Throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  beautiful  Japan,  in 
all  large  and  smaller  cities  and  villages  for- 
eign drinks  are  easily  obtainable,  to  the  great 
injury  of  the  people."-'' 

In  Central  Africa  drink  from  civilized  na- 
tions created  such  havoc  that  its  importation 
was  prohibited  by  concerted  action  of  the 
powers  within  a  limited  area.     Yet  it  is  not 

164 


THE  ETHICAL  PII.\SE. 

Strict!}-  enforced  and  the  area  is  too  small. 
Prince  Alomolu  Massaquoi  of  Ghendinah, 
who  was  educated  in  America,  after  taking 
up  his  rule  over  his  tribe  as  king  wrote*  in 
1^05^  "From  actual  calculation  I  find  that 
nearly  one-half  of  the  goods  imported  into  my 
territory  is  in  the  form  of  liquor,  and  that  of 
the  worst  and  most  injurious  kind.  The  na- 
tive has  an  idea  that  everything  that  white 
men  use  and  export  must  necessarily  be  good 
and  an  essential  element  in  civilization.  It  is 
therefore  common  to  find  a  man  who  is  poor 
and  not  able  to  get  sufficient  liquor  on  which 
to  get  drunk,  rubbing  a  drop  on  his  head  or 
on  his  mustache  in  order  that  people  may  smell 
it  and  call  him  civilized." 

Drunkenness  is  distinctly  a  vice  of  the 
Christian  nations.  It  is  their  aggresive  trade 
spirit  that  has  carried  liquor  in  immense  quan- 
tities among  these  undeveloped  races.  Among 
the  most  savage  and  especialh'  in  warm  cli- 
mates its  ravages  are  fearful.  The  natives 
knovv  no  self-restraint;  they  copy  the  vices  of 
the  great  white  man  more  quickly  than  they 
do  his  virtues.  The  exportation  of  liquors  to 
these  tribes  is  a  crime  against  humanity.  Prof. 
Starr,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  noted 
anthropologist,  said  in  a  lecture  "An  African 
living  in  an  African  hut  after  an  African 
fashion  is  likely  to  be  a  better  man  than  he 
would  be  after  the  Anglo-Saxon  introduced 
his  religion,  his  surface  civilization  and  his 
rum." 

The  liqvior  traffic  is  one  of  the  greatest  ob- 
stacles to  effective  missionary  effort  in  all 
}*Iohammedan  countries.     All  white  men  are 

165 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM. 

supposed  to  be  Christians.  Moslems  say  when 
they  see  one  of  their  number  drunk,  "He  has 
left  Mohamet  and  gone  to  Jesus."  In  Morocco 
"drunkenness  is  considered  a  Christian  sin." 
"There  is  no  license  system,  because  the  sul- 
tan cannot  derive  a  profit  from  sin." 

The  rum  tragedy  in  Manila  and  throughout 
the  Philippine  Islands  is  the  great  disgrace  in 
connection  with  our  recent  era  of  expansion. 
An  advance  agent  of  a  certain  American  brew- 
ery was  in  the  first  ranks  of  Dewey's  force, 
and  shiploads  of  beer  were  following  close 
after  the  fleet.  This  agent  hastily  threw  oflf 
his  uniform,  and  in  a  few  days  had  many 
saloons  established  dealing  out  beer  and  the 
stronger  American  liquors  in  true  American 
style.  A.mericans  were  soon  known  as  drunk- 
ards by  both  Spanish  and  Philippinos.  At 
first  disgust,  then  slow  acceptance  of  them, 
has  been  the  attitude  of  the  better  classes, 
while  the  less  civilized  yield  more  quickly  to 
this  type  of  refining  influence. 

Pres.  Schurman,  of  Cornell  University,  who 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Philippine  Commission, 
said,  "I  regret  that  the  Americans  let  the 
saloon  get  a  foothold  in  the  islands.  It  has 
hurt  the  Americans  more  than  anything  else, 
and  the  spectacle  of  Americans  drunk  awakens 
disgust  in  the  Filipinos.  We  suppressed  the 
cock-fights  there,  but  left  the  saloon  to  flour- 
ish. r3ne  emphasized  the  Filipino  frailty  and 
the  other  the  American  vice.  I  have  never 
seen  a  Filipino  drunkard."^  .  .The  Filipinos, 
while  pagan  and  semi-civilized,  are  moral  and 
sober.  They  first  learn  of  Christianity  from 
the  profane  sailor,  and  when  they  see  immense 
166 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

numbers  of  drunken,  profane  and  immoral 
soldiers  representing  this  country  they  have 
little  respect  for  the  religion  they  profess.  'If 
that  is  your  religion,'  they  sav,  Sve  prefer  our 
own."'« 

With  such  a  blighting  disgrace  ruining  in 
advance  so  much  of  the  noble  sacrificing  work 
of  our  missionaries  and  teachers  it  would  seem 
v^'ise  economy  to  apply  the  whole  force  of 
Christian  America,  if  necessary,  to  stop  the 
exportation  of  intoxicating  liquors  and  give 
the  church  and  our  type  of  civilization  a  fair 
chance. 

Ethical  Phase  of  the  License  Policy.- -Li- 
cense means  in  theory  both  restriction  and 
privilege — restriction  from  certain  acts  for 
the  legal  privilege  of  doing  certain  others.  It 
rests  upon  the  assumption  that  the  business 
is  partly  good,  partly  bad;  that  the  evils  are 
contingent,  not  inherent,  and  so  may  be  elim- 
inated by  careful  regulation.  It  has  neces- 
sarily a  twofold  character — sanction  and  con- 
denmation. 

In  actual  operation,  applied  to  the  sale  of 
liquors  as  it  is  in  most  states,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  those  having  prohibition,  it  means  lit- 
tle in  the  way  of  restriction  but  much  in  the 
way  of  endorsement,  encouragement  and  pro- 
tection. It  gives  the  business  privileges  which 
otherwise  it  would  not  have.  It  fails  to  note 
that  intemperance  and  the  evils  attending  it 
are  inherent  in  the  alcohol  sold  and  in  the 
vicious  sort  of  sociability  permitted  or  en- 
couraged in  most  saloons.  Its  application  here 
is  therefore  wrong  in  principle  and  a  mis- 
take in  practice. 

167 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR    PROBLEM. 

Further,  it  is  its  permissive  feature,  the 
public  consent  to  sell  intoxicating  liquors, 
usually  if  not  al\va3's  injurious  to  the  public, 
granted  for  a  price  paid  the  government,  that 
brings  it  into  conflict  with  ethical  ideals  of 
social  welfare. 

It  is  as  wrong  to  set  up  a  false  ideal  in 
society  as  it  is  to  teach  a  child  vicious  habits, 
to  steal,  to  be  impure,  to  have  no  regard  for 
the  sanctity  of  life,  and  it  is  many  times  more 
dangerous  to  public  welfare.  "Law  and  gov- 
ernment are  the  sovereign  influences  in  human 
society.  What  they  sanction  will  ever  be 
generally  considered  innocent,  what  they  con- 
demn is  thereby  made  a  crime." '  The  edu- 
cational effect  of  law  is  to  train  either  upward 
or  downward.  The  license  law  teaches  that 
the  traffic  is  all  right  if  the  fee  is  paid;  it 
puts  the  social  right  or  wrong  on  a  money 
Ijasis. 

If  the  sale  of  liquor  is  right  and  needful 
for  public  welfare  the  business  should  not  be 
required  to  bear  such  an  unusually  heavy 
burden  in  public  support;  the  license  should 
be  merely  for  regulation  so  as  to  eliminate 
any  attendant  evils.  As  it  is  the  extraordinar- 
ily high  fees  demanded  by  the  government  and 
willingly  paid  by  the  dealers,  are  in  the  na- 
ture of  what  is  called  "graft"  in  current  "high 
finance"  and  "high  politics."  If  the  beverage 
sale  is  a  danger  to  society,  as  the  character  of 
alcohol  makes  it,  government  has  no  right  to 
license  it;  it  may  not  justly  attempt  to  legalize 
a  wrong.  It  should  be  attacked  and  cleared 
out  if  possible.     If  this  can  not  be  done  all 

168 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

at  once  consent  should  not  be  given  any  more 
than  it  would  be  given  to  a  gang  of  thieves 
or  gamblers,  all  of  whom  can  not  be  captured 
at  one  time.  Without  this  legalizing  phase  of 
license  it  would  be  possible  to  prosecute  sa- 
loons one  at  a  time  as  nuisances. 

If  the  traffic  is  right  the  retail  sale  should 
not  be  burdened  with  the  social  opprobrium 
of  a  $i,ooo  license  fee;  if  wrong  the  fee  can 
not  make  it  right.  The  desire  of  the  dealer 
to  pay  it  only  proves  that  he  regards  the  money 
as  a  compensation  to  the  public  conscience. 

To  the  individual  citizen  license  implies 
consent  to  the  acts  so  authorized.  The  govern- 
ment becomes  responsible  for  the  product  of 
the  saloon — a  partner  in  the  business  because 
it  accepts  a  share  of  the  returns  of  that  busi- 
ness. In  our  form  of  government  the  individ- 
ual citizen,  favoring  that  policy,  no  matter 
how  remotely,  and  voting  for  it  is  a  party 
to  that  policy  and  its  consequences.  There 
can  be  no  ethical  distinction  between  his  act 
and  that  of  the  mayor  or  licensing  board  who 
signs  the  document  that  hangs  over  the  bar. 

"Society  has  no  right  to  do  what  an  in- 
dividual has  no  right  to  do.  Society  is  only 
a  collective  individual.  In  a  republican  form 
of  government  'we  the  people'  have  a  moral 
responsibility  for  their  collective  acts,  and  that 
responsibility  rests  upon  those  who  make  up 
'we  the  people' — in  other  words,  on  the  voter. 
A  Christian  voter  has  no  right  to  endorse  by 
his  vote  an  attitude  or  an  action  by  society 
which  he  would  not  endorse  as  a  private 
Christian."  * 

169 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

Assuming  that  two-thirds  of  those  who 
])atronize  the  saloon  never  become  drunkards 
and  that  all  who  drink  do  it  voluntarily  and 
with  a  knowledge  of  its  possible  consequences, 
the  saloon  is  nevertheless  a  vice  and  a  drunk- 
ard factory ;  the  families  of  the  one-third  of 
society  must  suffer.  Neither  the  gratification 
of  the  pleasures  secured  by  the  two-thirds 
in  the  saloon ;  nor  the  free  will  of.  the  drinker 
in  choosing  his  own  course,  nor  the  price  paid 
by  the  dealer  will  justify  the  social  conse- 
quences. 

Harmony  of  Government  with  Ethical 
Welfare. — As  has  been  shown  before,  the 
drinking  of  alcoholic  liquors  is  not  in  itself 
wrong;  it  depends  upon  the  consequences.  If 
a  man  drinks  in  such  a  way  that  little  injury 
is  done  his  health,  if  he  can  stand  the  cost 
financially  and  if  his  acts  do  not  injure  others 
or  his  indulgence  entail  lowered  vitality  upon 
his  children,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
there  is  nothing  personally  wrong  in  his  use 
of  liquor  as  a  beverage,  and  that  government 
has  no  occasion  to  interfere.  To  restrict  him 
from  without  is  to  limit  his  pleasure,  a  loss  to 
himself  and  to  the  community. 

But  science  shows  that  in  anything  more 
than  the  most  moderate  doses,  so  small  as  to 
make  its  beverage  use  insignificant,  alcohol  is 
for  most  people  a  poison.  This  makes  it  to 
the  great  mass  of  people  an  inherent  danger 
and  so  it  becomes  an  inherent  wrong  to  per- 
mit its  wide-'^prend  and  general  sale  for  such 
purposes.  \  The  social  ethics  cannot  be  deter- 
mined by  the  individual  effects  but  by  the 
great  average  of  consequences.  These  are  of 
170 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

such  far-reaching  danger  to  the  common 
safety  that  the  rights  of  the  moderate  self- 
controlled  drinker  should  not  be  permitted  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  infinitely  more  import- 
ant jcnsideration — the  lasting  good  of  the 
whole.  , 

The^liquor  trade,  supplying  an  article  in- 
herently dangerous  to  most  people,  and  the 
saloon  so  nearly  always  accompanied  by  low 
morals,  that  it  is  an  encouragement  to  positive 
vice,  are,  in  their  inevitable  personality  wrong. 
The  liquor  saloon  is  per  se  a  moral  blight 
upon  the  city,  state  and  nation.  It  cannot  be 
reformed  and  made  pure  so  long  as  alcohol  is 
there  sold  for  general  beverage  consumption. 

The  protection  of  public  morals  is  another 
primary  duty  of  government.  It,  too,  is 
among  those  unwritten  powers  of  all  govern- 
ment called  "police  powers,"  for  preserving 
the  very  integrity  of  the  government  itself. 
It  is  not  the  function  of  society,  organized 
as  a  whole,  to  "make  men  good  by  law" ;  but 
it  is  as  much  its  duty  to  protect  ethical  and 
religious  aspirations  and  ideals  as  it  is  to  see 
that  men  do  not  steal  each  other's  dollars,  or 
maintain  a  public  nuisance  that  endangers 
health  or  deprives  each  other  of  life  or  limb. 
The  ethical  and  spiritual  need  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  requirements  of  society.  In  its 
acquisition  social  regulation  is  as  necessary  to 
prevent  undue  private  aggradizement  upon 
those  following  that  aim  as  it  is  to  protect  a 
man  in  the  proper  accumulation  of  material 
wealth. 

The    state    cannot   directly    make   anyone 
happy,  or  good  or  wise ;  but  the  character  of 
171 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

the  public  institutions  it  permits,  or  gives  spe- 
cial endorsement  to  by  licensing,  makes  a 
great  deal  of  difference  to  him  in  his  en- 
deavors to  escape  misery  and  be  good.  The 
saloon  is  a  source  of  vice,  misery  and  crime. 
It  is  the  duty  of  government  to  remove  this 
sort  of  environment. 

The  state  may  not  make  tnen  good  by  law 
hut  it  certainly  should  not  permit  men  to  he 
made  bad  in  accordance  zvith  law. 

Institutions  tending  toward  moral  uplift  are 
protected  fully  by  law.  Churches  and  church 
property  do  not  pay  taxes  because  of  the  pub- 
lic moral  service  they  render.  Legitimate 
business  willingly  bears  the  additional  burden 
placed  upon  it.  On  the  other  hand,  immoral 
institutions  and  sources,  such  as  lotteries  and 
gambling  apparatus,  are  not  taxed  for  the  very 
opposite  reason — they  are  evils  from  which 
the  moral  business  man  is  paying  to  be  de- 
fended. Why  should  the  liquor  traffic  be  per- 
mitted to  have  privileges  contrary  to  its  in- 
herent nature  just  because  it  is  willing  to  pay 
for  them  ? 

Ethically  there  is  but  one  course  open  to 
government  in  regard  to  the  liquor  business 
and  the  saloon — to  expel  it  unconditionally. 
Any  temporary  compromise  with  a  view  to  re- 
moving certain  evils  is  an  evasion  of  the  fun- 
damental facts.  License  attempts  to  make  it 
legal ;  prohibition  acts  on  the  principle  that  it 
is  wrong;  local  choice  ignores  the  ethical  prin- 
ciple almost  entirely  in  behalf  of  a  policy  of 
immediate  local  gain.  The  state  gives  pro- 
tection to  property  and  life ;  the  state,  too,  not 
a  county,  township,  ward  of  precinct,  or  city, 
172 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

should  say  whether  the  morals  of  that  com- 
munity shall  be  protected  from  the  saloon,  or 
not.  Local  option,  as  well  as  high  license  or 
restriction,  is  contrary  to  high  moral  prin- 
ciple, although  it  differs  in  being  capable  of 
being  used  as  a  step  toward  prohibition  when 
sentiment  is  not  strong  enough  to  demand  the 
whole  principle  or  as  a  compromise  when  the 
pro-liquor  influence  is  able  to  make  the  public 
believe  that  what  is  morally  right  may  not  be 
politically  expedient. 

It  has  been  said  that  prohibition  interferes 
with  the  moral  freedom  of  the  individual ; 
that  it  removes  temptation  and  that  the  non- 
tempted  is  non-moral  because  virtue  comes 
from  the  resistance  to  temptation,  not  from 
blind  freedom  from  it.  In  answer  is  the  fact 
that  prohibition  as  applied  to  liquor  has  not 
been  directed  against  the  act  of  drinking ;  that 
men  may  make  their  own  liquor  and  drink  it, 
if  they  choose.  Besides,  as  shown  above,  the 
state  does  not  make  men  good,  or  aim  to ;  its 
duty  is  to  protect  the  community  as  a  whole 
from  the  burdens  cast  upon  it  by  excessive 
drinkers,  which  in  practice  means  nearly  all 
drinkers.  When  intemperance  is  threatening 
the  life  of  a  nation  this  objection  is  a  very 
small  one,  indeed.  No  law  can  possibly  de- 
prive a  man  of  the  opportunities  necessary 
to  put  up  a  good  fight  for  manhood. 

The  more  persistent  claim,  ethically,  for  the 
saloon  is  that  it  furnishes  amusement  and 
recreation  for  a  large  class  of  workingmen 
who  cannot  aft"ord  anything  better.  Prohibi- 
tion is  necessary  to  deal  with  this  phase  of  the 
problem  satisfactorily ;  it  does  not  aim  to  take 
173 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

the  sociability  features  away  from  the  saloon, 
as  do  certain  other  regulative  measures,  but 
to  remove  alcohol  and  vice  from  sociability  so 
that  through  the  money  now  spent  for  drink 
healthy,  normal  recreation  may  be  possible. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  Social  Ethics  of  the  Saloon. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  279-292, 
300-303. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Re- 
form," zi,  41-42,  185-188. 

Calkins,   "Substitutes   for  the   Saloon,"  2-8,    14-16. 

Wheeler,   "Prohibition,"   27-30,   88-92. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  Summary  of  "The  Liquor 
Problem,"  146-150. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClures,  April 
1907. 

*Dr.  Albion  W.  Small,  University  of  Chicago,  Lec- 
tures on  Ethics  of  Sociology. 

^Mill,  "Utilitarianism." 

'Committee  of  Fifty,  Summary,  147. 

^Barker,   186. 

"Bonfort's  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular;   Barker,  187. 

"Fehlandt,  302. 

'Wheeler,  91. 

The  Attitude  of  the  Church. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

48,  73-85. 
Fernald,  "1  he  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  418-430. 
Calkins,   "Substitutes    for  the   Saloon,"    125-134. 
Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 

447-465- 
American  Prohibition  Year  Book,  1908,  159-164. 
i^opkins,  "Wenlth  and  Waste,"  I7i-i''4. 
M  lopkins,   166. 

^From  Report  of  General  Temperance  Committee, 
Conference  of  1908. 

174 


THE  ETHICAL  PHASE. 

The  Saloon  Its  Chief  Competitor. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

48. 
Cressey,  'The  Church  and  Young  Men,"   1-7. 
Calkins,  "Substitutes   for  the   Saloon,"   10-15,   133- 

146. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  300-303. 
Peabody,    "Substitutes      for    the    Saloon,"    Forum, 

21.  595. 
Oates,  "The  Religious  Condition  of  Young  Men." 
^American    Prohibition    Year    Book    (1908)    from 

Internal   Revenue   Reports. 
^Daily    News    Almanac    (1908)    from    Compilation 

of  Religious    Statistics  by   Dr.   H.   K.   Carroll 

for    Christian    Advocate. 
'Peabody,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  Forum,  21, 

595. 
'Y.  M.  C.  A.  Handbooks. 
^Cressey,  "The  Church  and  Young  Men." 
"Dates,  "The  Religious  Condition  of  Young  Men." 
'Paper  on  "Social  Forces  in  Action,"  by  J.  Wilbur 

Messer,  General  Secretary,  Chicago  Y.  M.  C. 

A. 

The  Trafac  in  "The  Foreign  Field." 

Crafts,   "Intoxicants   and   Opium." 

Dennis,  "Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress," 
Vol.  1,  76-84. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem    and  Social  Reform," 
48-49. 

Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 
433-445. 

Fernald,   "Economics   of   Prohibition,"   441-453. 

Prohibition  Year  Books,    (1907)   13-16;   (1908)   134. 

Momolu  Massaquoi,  "Africa's  Appeal  to  Christen- 
dom,"  Century,   April,   1905. 

^^merican   Prohibition  Year  Book    (1907)    14. 

=Crafts,  19. 

'Same,  137. 

*See  reference  above. 

'Barker,  49. 

•Crafts,  201. 
Ethical  Phase  of  the  License  Policy. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Soc:  .1  Reform," 

67-70. 

175 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Cyclopedia  of   Temperance   and   Prohibition,   360- 

362. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"   193-207. 
Spencer,    "The    License    Question,"    in    Stephens 

"Prohibition  in  Kans." 
Fraser,  "Ethics  of  Prohibition,"  Inter.  Jr.   Ethics, 

9,  350-359- 
Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  207-216. 
^Wheeler  144. 

'Spencer  in  "Pro.  in  Kans.,"  127. 
Fraser,     "Ethics    of     Prohibition,"     Internatl.     Jr. 

Ethics,  9,  350. 
Harmony  of  Government  with  Ethical  Welfare. 

Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  302-305. 
Fraser,    "Ethics     of     Prohibition,"     International 

Journal  of  Ethics,  9,  353. 
Hopkins,  "Wealth  and   Waste,"   164-179. 


176 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE  CITY  PROBLEM. 

The  City  Problem. — The    disproportionate 

growth  of  large  cities  is  one  of  the  most  strik- 
ing social  phenomena  of  the  age.  Within 
twenty  3'ears,  at  the  present  rate  of  progress, 
one-half  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
will  live  in  cities.  In  the  new  agricultural 
communities  of  the  West  the  rural  population 
is  increasing ;  in  the  Central  States  it  is  prac- 
tically at  a  stand-still ;  in  certain  sections  of 
New  England  it  is  actually  decreasing.  But 
the  cities  are  growing ;  the  larger  the  city  the 
greater  is  the  rate  of  growth  at  the  present 
time. 

In  1800  there  were  but  six  cities  in  the 
United  States  with  a  population  of  8,000  or 
more;  they  contained  3.9  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population.  In  1880  there  were  286.  In  1890 
there  were  443  containing  29.12  per  cent,  of 
the  total ;  in  1900  33  per  cent,  of  all  the  people 
lived  in  such  cities  which  numbered  545,  among 
them  some  of  the  largest  in  the  world.  From 
3  to  33  per  cent,  in  a  hundred  years — a  won- 
derful shift  of  population  from  steady-going 
country  life  to  the  business  excitement,  the 
social  swirl  and  political  corruption  now  in- 
volved where  people  live  huddled  together  in 
177 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

o^reat  masses.  "If  the  rate  of  the  movement 
from  the  country  to  city  between  1890  and 
1900  continues  until  1940  there  will  then  be 
in  the  United  States  21,000,000  more  people 
in  our  cities  than  outside  of  them.  .  .  .  The 
cities  will  then  no  longer  accept  limitations 
from  the  state  but,  when  they  have  become 
fully  conscious  of  their  power,  will  take  into 
their  hands,  not  only  their  own  affairs,  but 
also  those  of  the  state  and  of  the  nation."^ 

The  most  far-sighted  and  friendly  of  critics 
of  our  American  institutions,  James  Bryce, 
says  that  the  one  conspicuous  failure  in  this 
country  is  the  government  of  great  cities. 
Wendell  Phillips  said  that  the  time  would  come 
when  rum  intrenched  in  our  great  cities  would 
strain  American  institutions  and  liberty  as 
slavery  never  did.  Prof.  F.  H.  Giddings,  of 
Columbia  University,  said  a  few  years  ago  in 
an  address,  "We  are  witnessing  to-day  beyond 
question,  the  decay — perhaps  not  permanent, 
but  at  any  rate  the  decay — of  republican  insti- 
tutions.  No  man  in  his  right  mind  can  deny  it." 

And  the  blight  of  municipal  mis-government 
and  "graft,"  of  the  exploitation  and  sale  of 
dissipation  and  vice  on  a  large  scale  is  due, 
more  than  to  any  other  one  cause,  to  the  saloon 
and  the  saloon-boss  and  to  the  liquor  trafific 
back  of  them.  The  liquor  business  is  a  gigan- 
tic political  trust  buying  out  city  councils, 
mayors,  police  ofificers  and  people  alike.  It 
is  ready  organized  to  secure  its  own  ends  or 
to  furnish  the  necessary  force  of  venal  voters 
and  political  bosses  required  when  private  cor- 
porations enter  upon  some  scheme  to  fleece  the 

178 


THE   CITY   PROBLEM. 

public  or  get  a  big  "graft"  from  the  city  and 
state  treasuries. 

The  causes  of  this  shifting  of  the  mass  of 
population,  and  with  it  of  political  power,  from 
country  to  city,  are  permanent  and  cannot  be 
stopped  or  materially  reduced.  People  live 
longer  in  the  cities  than  they  used  to  and  the 
death  rate  among  children  has  been  greatly 
lowered  through  public  sanitation.  There  is 
a  tremendous  rush  of  young  people  from  the 
country  to  the  city.  Scientific  farming  and 
the  use  of  improved  machinery  on  the  farm 
reduce  the  number  needed  to  produce  the  food 
supply  of  the  world  and  drive  many  to  the  city 
for  employment.  The  demand  for  a  thousand 
articles,  now  regarded  as  necessities  but  for- 
merly looked  upon  as  luxuries,  increases  stead- 
ily the  proportionate  number  of  employees 
needed  in  factories  and  in  commerce.  The 
larger  opportunities  ofiFered  for  a  career  in 
business,  politics,  commerce  or  art  draw  thou- 
sands. The  abnormal  excitement  of  city  life, 
the  noise,  the  vice  and  tendency  towards  fast 
life  draw  the  more  depraved  of  all  classes  and 
center  them  more  and  more  in  the  cities  at  the 
same  time  that  the  greater  opportunities  for 
advancement  are  appealing  to  the  more  ener- 
getic. 

The  occasions  and  temptations  to  drink  or 
to  indulge  to  excess  are  multiplied  in  the  city ; 
they  are  more  open  and  easy  of  access.  The 
nervous  haste  and  excitement  lead  to  a  crav- 
ing for  stimulants  to  prod  the  flagging  nerves. 
The  dangers  resulting  are  greater,  too,  since 
there  is  less  opportunity  to  throw  ofif  the  alco- 

179 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

holic  poison  by  work  or  exercise  in  the  open 
air  and  away  from  temptation. 

It  is  the  cities  that  resist  longest  the  advances 
of  prohibition  and  constitute  the  strong-holds 
of  intemperance  and  the  liquor  power.  The 
traffic  is  now  largely  centered  and  protected 
in  the  100  largest  cities  of  twenty-eight  license 
states.  From  this  point  of  vantage  it  not  only 
controls  the  cities  themselves  but  also  bom- 
bards the  small  town  and  rural  territory,  com- 
prising two-thirds  of  the  entire  country,  in 
which  liquor  selling  has  been  outlawed  and  in 
which  live  40,000,000  people.  The  govern- 
ment of  these  100  cities  is  almost  equally  di- 
vided between  the  two  dominant  parties  which, 
in  their  city  machinery,  are  totally  under  the 
leadership  of  liquor  politicians.  To  the  men 
nominated  and  elected  at  the  bid  of  these  parti- 
san bosses  falls  the  execution  of  the  liquor 
laws  of  the  state.  The  result  is,  too  often, 
that  they  are  totally  ignored  or  city  ordinances 
are  passed  conflicting  with  them.  On  this 
question  the  pro-liquor  party  leaders  of  the 
great  cities  dictate  the  policies  for  the  party  of 
the  state  and  nation. 

One  hundred  years  ago  almost  everybody 
drank,  the  per  capita  consumption  chiefly  dis- 
tilled liquors,  being  something  like  4  gallons. 
There  were  no  temperance  societies  and  no 
legal  restrictions  whatever  on  the  sale.  At  the 
present  time  not  more  than  one  out  of  four 
persons  drinks,  the  per  capita  use  has  grown 
to  22.27-  gallons,  including  both  malt  and  dis- 
tilled liquors,  there  are  40,000,000  people  liv- 
ing under  the  operation  of  local  and  state  pro- 
hibitory laws,  chiefly  in  rural  communities  or 
180 


THE  CITY   PROBLEM. 

States  without  great  cities,  and  intemperance 
and  the  poHtical  and  commercial  power  of  the 
Hqiior  trade  are  centralized  and  complicated 
in  our  largest  cities.  Here,  backed  up  by  dis- 
torted ideas  of  personal  liberty,  it  furnishes  the 
necessary  force  of  venal  voters  and  money  re- 
quired to  keep  itself  in  power,  defends  itself 
against  the  higher  moral  sentiment  of  the  coun- 
try and  awaits  the  certain  predominance  of  the 
city  in  the  politics  of  the  nation  to  gain  a  more 
relentless  grip  on  public  affairs  than  it  has 
ever  yet  held. 

With  this  certain  growth  of  the  political 
power  accompanied  by  the  relative  waning  of 
the  rural  vote,  upon  which  we  have  depended 
to  save  the  city  from  itself  and  the  state  from 
the  city,  the  overthrozv  of  the  liquor  pozver 
within  the  cities  becomes  the  strategic  and  most 
essential  issue  in  American  reform  politics. 

The  City  Population. — America  has  been 
proud  to  be  known  as  the  place  of  refuge  for 
the  oppressed  of  all  nations.  Of  recent  years 
the  pleasure  of  this  philanthropic  spirit  has 
been  dimmed  by  the  dangers  arising  from  the 
massing  of  foreign  peoples  that  refuse  to  be 
Americanized  in  our  great  cities  and  by  their 
abuse  of  the  liberties  here  sought  when  they 
fled  oppression  in  their  home  lands.  Says 
Jacob  Riis  in  regard  to  the  motley  character 
of  the  tenement  population  in  New  York,  "One 
may  find  for  the  asking  an  Italian,  Germah, 
French,  African,  Spanish,  Bohemian,  Russian, 
Scandinavian,  Jewish  and  Chinese  colony.  The 
one  thing  you  will  ask  for  in  vain  in  the  chief 
city  of  America  is  a  distinctively  American 
community."^ 

181 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

These  people  have  brought  with  them  cus- 
toms both  good  and  bad.  But  it  is  from  the 
vice  and  crime,  from  the  social  and  political 
corruption  of  the  saloon  and  the  saloon  asso- 
ciations that  face  them  on  three  corners  of 
every  street  crossing,  and  a  half-dozen  times 
in  each  block,  that  they  learn  the  ideas  that 
are  dangerous  both  to  them  and  to  the  com- 
munity. It  is  not  the  foreigner  that  is  a  men- 
ace ;  it  is  those  of  his  own  race  who  have  been 
here  a  few  years,  or  a  generation,  who  teach 
the  ideas  that  make  him  dangerous.  "He 
needs  nothing  more  than  protection  against 
corrupting  and  the  venal  agencies  which  find 
their  origin  and  politics  in  the  saloon."^  By 
far  the  largest  share  of  saloon  keepers  are  for- 
eigners and  each  colony  has  its  ov/n  ward  poli- 
ticians to  exploit  its  newly  acquired  rights  of 
suffrage  for  the  benefit  of  some  corrupt  politi- 
cal deal. 

It  is  not  for  Americans  to  decry  foreigners 
simply  because  they  were  born  on  a  distant 
shore.  This  country  has  grown  strong  be- 
^cause  it  has  received,  from  time  to  time,  the 
customs,  energies  and  ideas  of  many  old  coun- 
tries. It  is  not  the  foreign  man  but  the  ideals 
and  practices  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  American 
institutions  and  morality  that  are  dangerous. 
Among  these  kept  alive  and  propagated  by  the 
saloon,  are  the  following: 

-l.  An  aggravated  form  of  intemperance.  It 
is  a  noticeable  fact  that  those  who  have  come 
to  this  country  from  Central  or  Northern  Eu- 
rope either  begin  to  drink  more  or  quit  alto- 
gether. There  is  little  of  the  same  degree  of 
moderate  drinking  among  the  Germans  here 

182 


THE   CITY    PROBLEM. 

that  there  is  in  the  Fatherland.  The  cHmate, 
tlie  rushing,  nervous  life,  the  excitements  of 
business,  labor  disputes  and  politics  increase 
the  evils  resulting  from  the  use  of  alcohol  and 
strengthen  the  demand  for  the  stimulant  itself. 
In  the  second  generation  the  change  is  more 
marked — either  excessive  drinking  or  an  ap- 
proximate total  abstinence.  Many  industrious 
peasant  laborers  are  constantly  disgraced  by 
vicious,  idle  sons  and  daughters,  who  despise 
them  and  learn  their  own  ideas  of  "liberty" 
from  the  American  type  of  saloon  and  its 
habitues. 

2.  The  mis-education  of  foreigners  as  to 
their  political  relations  and  duties.  The  first 
lesson  in  self-government  is  taken  in  the 
saloon ;  he  sees  there  the  first  political  organ- 
ization of  which  he  has  heard ;  he  meets  there 
the  "boss"  assigned  to  his  precinct  or  nation- 
ality and  is  paid  in  the  coin  current  of  the 
saloon  for  the  first  exercise  of  his  newly  ac- 
quired privilege  of  voting.  No  wonder,  if 
ignorant,  he  becomes  the  tool  of  the  ward  boss 
\\ho  is  able  to  manipulate  as  he  chooses  the 
solid  Irish,  Polish,  Bohemian  and  even  Ger- 
man vote. 

3.  His  ideas  of  liberty  are  distorted  in  the 
same  way.  It  is  to  be  expected  that,  escaping 
from  Russian  oppression,  the  Russian  Jew  or 
Pole  should  have  a  tendency  to  dislike  all  gov- 
ernment. The  saloon  stimulates  this  spirit. 
It  afl:'ords  a  standing  example  of  law  defiance 
since  it  refuses  to  obey  even  the  most  lenient 
regulations.  Also  by  its  associations  and  the 
physical  consequences  of  the  "goods"  it  sup- 
plies  its  patrons   it  cultivates   the   same   anti- 

183 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

social    Spirit    and    affords    a    rendezvous    for 
anarchy  and  crime. 

4.  Native  born  children  of  foreign  parents 
show  a  crime  tenrlency  twice  as  great  as  for- 
eigners themselves  and  three  times  as  great  as 
the  children  of  natives.  "This  amazing  crim- 
inality of  the  children  of  foreigners  is  almost 
wholly  a  product  of  city  life."^  Writing  of 
the  distinctive  policy  of  the  brewers  of  Chi- 
cago to  thoroughly  saturate  the  tenement  and 
working  districts  of  that  city  with  beer,  Tur- 
ner says  in  his  "Study  of  the  Great  Immorali- 
ties/"* "A  population  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  unrestrained  male  laborers,  plied  with  all 
possible  energy  and  ingenuity  with  alcoholic 
liquor,  can  be  counted  on,  with  the  certaintv 
of  a  chemical  experiment,  for  one  reaction — 
violent  and  fatal  crime.  There  would  be  crime 
of  this  kind  from  such  a  source  under  any 
circumstances.  But  the  facilities  of  Chicago 
double  and  treble  it.  .  .  .  Their  children  are 
as  surely  rotted  as  themselves  by  the  influence 
of  the  saloon  upon  the  neighborhood  of  their 
homes." 

5.  It  is  in  the  saloon  that  the  purchasable 
vote  is  in  large  part  created,  organized  and 
sold. 

6.  The  substitution  of  the  European  Sunday 
for  the  American  Sabbath  directly  accompanies 
the  growth  and  influence  of  the  liquor  element. 

7.  The  governmental  custom  of  licensing, 
and  so  legalizing,  the  sale  of  liquors  is  begin- 
ning to  be  applied  to  such  intolerable  evils  as 
gambling  and  the  social  vice.  This  is  a  direct 
importation  from  Europe  where  in  certain 
citico  the  la^;'  legalizes  and  collects  fees  from 

184 


THE   CITY   PROBLEM. 

them  as  it  treats  the  saloon  in  this  country. 

The  saloon,  by  perpetuating  and  aggravat- 
ing the  worst  in  the  customs  of  the  1,000,000 
people  annually  coming  to  America,  rather 
than  their  best,  is  an  enemy  both  to  the  for- 
eigner himself  and  to  the  welfare  of  this  coun- 
try as  a  whole. 

The  Saloon  and  the  Housing  Problem. — One 
of  the  most  characteristic  of  social  problems 
in  our  large  cities  is  how  to  provide  healthful 
and  pleasant  yet  cheap  housing  for  the  poorest 
classes.  It  is  one  of  the  vital  problems  of  city 
life.  Sociologists  have  spent  a  great  deal  of 
time  investigating  and  philanthropists  have 
given  money  to  erect  model  and  paying  tene- 
ments yet  it  is  only  partially  solved.  The  first 
need,  of  course,  is  better  wages.  Another,  no 
less  important,  is  often  overlooked — the  proper 
use  of  the  wages  earned. 

It  is  too  often  the  money  spent  for  intoxi- 
cating drinks  that  makes  it  necessary  in  the 
first  place  to  rent  the  poorest  of  quarters  and 
crowd  them  with  roomers  to  help  pay  the  rent. 
Wide  studies  have  shown  that  it  is  the  home, 
the  house  and  house  furnishings,  that  suffers 
most  for  the  lack  of  the  money  spent  at  the 
saloon !  As  stated  by  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould, 
"The  economies  which  are  necessary  to  in- 
dulge the  appetite  for  spirits  are  almost  in- 
variably practiced  upon  the  home  accommoda- 
tions."^ This  is  particularly  unfortunate  for 
it  is  the  innocent  members  of  the  family,  the 
wife  and  small  children,  who  are  compelled 
to  remain  in  these  squalid  roosts — they  cannot 
be  called  homes — all  day,  that  suffer  most. 

It  has  been  found  by  those  who  have  under- 

186 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

taken  large  plans  of  tenement  house  reform 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  improve  the 
families  in  which  one  or  more  members  drink. 
They  cannot  make  use  of  better  houses  even 
after  they  have  been  provided ;  they  cannot 
save  even  the  slight  amount  asked  to  pay  the 
rent  for  very  much  improved  dwellings.  All 
that  margin,  and  much  more,  goes  for  beer. 
Then  they  cannot  live  with  neighbors  under 
improved  conditions ;  they  are  disorderly  and 
interfere  with  the  peace  of  others  poorer  than 
themselves.  Merely  securing  them  good 
homes  or  paying  higher  wages  so  they  may 
procure  better  ones  for  themselves  is  not  suffi- 
cient while  the  drink  habit  remains.  The  sup- 
ply must  be  broken  off. 

Some  few  years  ago  there  was  efifected  in 
Edinburgh  a  remarkable  series  of  housing  im^ 
provements  among  the  very  poor.  One  of 
the  chief  promoters  gives  the  following  testi- 
mony as  to  how  the  saloon  practically  ruined 
the  results  of  their  costly  labors :  "Edinburgh 
presents  an  illustration  of  the  extent  to  which 
sanitary  agencies  are  connected  with  the  drink 
evil.  .  .  .  Upwards  of  half  a  million  pounds 
was  expended  in  rooting  out  the  haunts  of 
wretchedness  and  vice,  while  another  half-mil- 
lion was  expended  on  improved  dwellings  and 
other  sanitary  reforms.  That  the  result  of 
this  great  experiment  has  been  largely  counter- 
acted by  drink  is  only  too  apparent.  In  twelve 
years  the  number  of  drunken  cases  increased 
27  per  cent.,  while  the  whole  population  in- 
creased 16  per  cent."-  In  this  region  there 
were  200  men  living  in  low  grade  lodging 
houses ;  they  received  fair  to  good  wages  but, 

186 


THE   CITY   PROBLEM. 

spending  one-half  of  it,  on  an  average,  on 
drink  they  were  unable  to  have  any  sort  of 
homes  of  their  own.  They  simply  preferred 
the  drink.  To  spend  public  money  in  con- 
tributing to  the  household  comforts  of  this 
class  would  be  to  do  them  a  positive  injury; 
They  possess  ample  power  to  improve  their 
own  position."^  This  great  housing  reform 
was  rendered  nugatory  to  the  poorer  classes 
by  the  constant  presence  and  pressure  of  the 
saloon. 

The  City  Vote. — There  is  scarcely  a  city  of 
100,000  population  in  this  country  at  the  pres- 
ent time  that  does  not  have  the  beginnings  of 
or  a  well  developed  ring  of  political  manipu- 
lators and  bosses  who  graft  on  the  public 
funds,  rail-road  through  public  franchises  at 
the  expense  of  the  people  and  "stand  in"  with 
the  sellers  of  social  dissipation,  of  which  liquor 
is  the  largest  and  most  powerful.  In  many 
smaller  cities  the  system  is  equally  well  organ- 
ised. It  is  a  great  scheme  of  public  robbery 
made  possible  by  the  indifference  of  so-called 
good  people  to  city  politics  and  by  the  con- 
flicting of  state  and  national  party  lines  with 
local  affairs.  The  one  ever-necessary  go-be- 
tween is  the  saloon  vote. 

This  inherently  vicious  vote  of  the  saloon 
in  the  cities  is  a  worse  factor  in  politics  than 
even  the  state  and  national  organizations  of 
the  liquor  dealers  themselves.  The  saloon  first 
makes  men  capable  of  selling  that  sacred  power 
which  makes  every  man  a  king,  often  com- 
pels them  to  do  so  in  order  to  get  something 
to  eat  or  to  pay  for  more  drinks,  and  then 
buys  and  sells  that  vote.     "The  influence  of 

187 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

the  saloon,  rather  than  the  influence  of  the 
saloon-keeper,  is  the  cause  of  grave  concern. 
The  influence  of  the  saloons  of  the  land  is  no 
more  to  be  measured  by  that  of  the  men  who 
conduct  them  than  the  influence  of  the  common 
schools  of  the  land  is  to  be  measured  by  that  of 
the  teachers  employed  in  them.  The  bar 
rather  than  the  barkeeper  is  the  source  of  deg- 
radation, and  if  every  saloon-keeper  emigrated 
or  died  to-morrow,  and  the  saloons  continued, 
there  would  be  but  a  slight  and  temporary 
change  for  the  better.  It  is  true  the  liquor 
dealers,  through  the  organizations — local,  state 
and  national — which  they  have  formed,  and 
the  immense  capital  which  they  have  accumu- 
lated, have  developed  political  power  danger- 
ous to  contemplate.  But  the  chief  source  of 
that  power  is  not,  after  all,  in  their  organiza- 
tions, nor  in  their  capital,  nor  in  their  personal 
ability ;  but  it  lies  in  the  saloons  which  they 
control,  and  through  which  they  operate  to 
such  tremendous  advantage.  Whatever  pur- 
chaseable  vote  there  may  be  is  almost  sure  to 
he  within  the  reach  of  the  saloon-keeper."'^ 

Here  the  party  machines  are  best  organized 
and  depend  most  upon  the  saloons  for  their 
medium  of  exchange.  "It  is  in  the  large  cities 
that  we  find  the  corrupt  and  dangerous  politi- 
cal machine  in  the  full  stage  of  development 
and  there  we  may  study,  at  close  range,  the 
phenomena  of  one-man  power  in  a  republic."^ 
The  machine  is  legitimate  party  organization 
narrowed  down  to  one  man ;  the  "machine 
politician"  is  the  one  who  is  in ;  the  "reformer" 
is  the  one  who  is  trying  to  get  in.  In  the  two 
dominant  parties,  where  the  getting  of  ofiice 

188 


THE  CITY   PROBLEM. 

is  subservient  to  principle,  the  machine  takes 
advantage  of  the  great  mass  of  unfamiliar 
names  on  the  ballot,  to  secure  the  nomination 
and  placing  thereon  of  the  names  of  their  ow^n 
confidential  henchmen  and  of  "good"  men 
who  will  turn  over  to  them  the  privilege  of 
disposing  of  all  the  appointive  jobs  connected 
with  the  position.  Geo.  B.  Cox,  the  infamous 
Republican  boss  of  Cincinnati,  impressed  upon 
all  heads  of  departments  .and  office-holders 
that  all  subordinate  help  should  be  appointed 
by  him.  A  judge  could  not  select  his  own 
bailiff  or  stenographer.  The  mayor  could  not 
choose  his  assistants  or  clerks.  Cox  appointed 
his  men  to  all  these  positions.  There  were 
more  than  5,000  of  such  jobs  in  the  city.  These 
men  had  an  average  of  at  least  five  friends 
whose  votes  they  could  control.  They  were 
given  to  understand  that  if  these  friends  failed 
to  vote  as  Cox  dictated  they  lost  their  jobs. 

"The  skeleton  of  Cox's  machine  is  simple. 
He  at  the  center  is  supreme ;  associated  with 
him  are  his  two  cabinet  men,  Herrmann  (chair- 
man of  the  campaign  committee.  President  of 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  for  the  New 
Water  Works,  manager  of  the  Cincinnati  ball 
team,  etc.)  and  Hynicka  (who  is  county  treas- 
urer). Herrmann  runs  all  city  departments  ex- 
cept the  Council,  which  is  entrusted  to  Mike 
Mullen.  This  provides  for  the  administration. 
The  army  which  retains  this  inner  circle  of 
administration  in  power,  is  minutely  organized. 
At  the  head  of  each  ward  is  a  captain  who  is 
directly  responsible  to  Cox,  but  in  most  mat- 
ters reports  to  Herrmann  or  Hynicka.  Under 
each  ward  captain  are  executives,  one  in  charge 

189 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

of  each  precinct.  The  responsibility  of  carry- 
ing a  ward  is  placed  on  the  captain ;  if  he  fails 
to  accomplish  this  and  no  satisfactory  expla- 
nation can  be  given,  he  loses  his  place.  .  .  . 
The  precinct  executives  are  in  like  manner 
held  responsible  by  the  captains.  They  must 
know  about  every  man  in  their  small  district, 
what  his  tendencies  are,  what  organizations  he 
belongs  to,  how  he  may  be  influenced,  who 
his  friends  are.  He  must  take  a  poll  of  his 
district  on  demand,  and  he  is  usually  able  to 
tell  within  a  few  votes  how  his  precinct  will 
go."^  The  precinct  executives  all  hold  city 
jobs,  the  only  exception  being  a  former  saloon 
partner  of  Cox's  who  runs  free  from  molesta- 
tion the  largest  gambling  den  in  the  city. 
Higher  offices,  such  as  councilman  or  federal 
positions  in  the  city,  are  reserved  for  the  ward 
captains.  All  pay  good  salaries  and  some  af- 
ford wide  opportunity  for  graft.  "All  these 
men,  however,  are  on  intimate  terms  with  the 
saloonists  of  their  wards  and  can  deal  with 
them  for  the  patronage  they  control."* 

The  machine  runs  the  convention  in  perfect 
order.  "On  the  following  morning,  after  the 
primaries,  the  chairman  of  the  ward  dele- 
gates meet  Cox  at  Wielert's  saloon.  These 
chairmen,  in  nearly  all  instances,  are  the  ward 
captains.  .  .  .  Cox  gives  each  a  slip  of  paper 
indicating  how  they  are  to  vote  as  their  wards 
are  called.  He  also  has  all  resolutions  in  type- 
written form  and  arranges  with  certain  indi- 
viduals to  present  them  at  the  proper  time. 
Preparations  having  been  made  all  repair  to 
the  convention  except  Cox  who  remains  at 
Wielert's.  In  former  years  Cox  used  to  be 
190 


THE  CITY   PROBLEM. 

one  of  the  sergeants-at-arms,  and  was  always 
on  the  floor  to  direct  operations.  Now,  how- 
ever, the  machine  is  so  well  adjusted  that  it 
runs  itself."  After  adjournment  all  return  to 
Wielert's  saloon  for  a  blow-out.^ 

However  legitimate  party  machinery  may 
be  in  a  great  city  nothing  can  keep  it  clean 
except  a  powerful  public  issue  backed  by  pub- 
lic spirited  men.  The  boss  is  a  product  of  his 
environment ;  when  one  disappears,  either  into 
a  prison  cell,  where  so  many  belong,  or  retires 
with  all  the  plunder  he  wants,  he  is  succeeded 
by  another.  Worthy  men  will  not  go  into 
what  is  ordinarily  termed  "politics"  for  the 
spoils  of  office  and  the  additions  to  be  gained 
by  graft,  alone.  When  political  parties  are 
used  merely  to  fill  the  offices  the  object  of 
getting  in  can  be  no  other  than  personal  profit. 
The  lasting  antidote  to  boss  rule  is  the  de- 
struction of  the  saloon  environment  in  which 
it  flourishes  and  the  entering  of  practical  poli- 
tics by  educated  young  men  whose  motive  is 
the  good  they  can  do  the  public,  while  receiv- 
ing the  well-earned  salary  belonging  with  the 
office.  But  neither  in  the  political  organiza- 
tion nor  in  the  offices  can  most  good  men,  if 
we  judge  by  the  present  and  past  in  city  poli- 
tics, remain  good — resist  permanently  the  in- 
sidious demands  of  the  sellers  of  dissipation, 
unless  they  are  in  turn  backed  by  an  organized 
constituency  whose  issue  is  a  vital  public  ques- 
tion. 

The  overthrow  of  the  liquor  traffic  and  its 

associated  evils,  being  intensely  local,  state  and 

national,  affords  the  best  possible  opportunity 

to  worthy  men  whose  tenure  in  office  and  pub- 

191 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

lie  success,  of  the  highest  type,  depend  upon 
their  being  true  to  the  great  issue  upon  which 
they  were  elected. 

The  problem  of  the  saloon  is  not  alone  or 
chiefly  a  city  question.  It  is  a  state  and  na- 
tional question.  The  county  and  the  state  pay 
the  taxes  that  support  the  institutions,  prisons, 
reformatories,  asylums,  that  care  for  the  ulti- 
mate saloon  product.  Local  prohibitory  or 
regulative  laws  are  made  ineffective  by  liquors 
carried  across  the  local  boundary  lines.  The 
city  should  not  rule  the  country ; — the  country 
cannot  long,  and  should  not,  rule  the  city.  The 
proper  unit  to  vote  upon  and  decide  such 
problems  as  the  saloon,  whose  consequences 
fall  upon  both  country  and  city,  is  one  which 
involves  both  rural  and  city  population.  The 
only  vote  which  can  truthfully  show  the  senti- 
ment of  the  people  is  that  of  the  state,  includ- 
ing both  rural  and  city  communities  with  all 
their  varying  races,  inherited  ideas,  drinking 
customs,  and  living  conditions.  The  township 
and  village  are  purely  rural ;  the  city,  of 
course,  is  urban,  while  the  question  itself  is 
necessarily  both.  The  county  is  usually  rural 
in  character  although  in  such  counties  as  Cook, 
in  Illinois,  where  Chicago  is  situated,  Hamil- 
ton and  Cuyahoga  in  Ohio,  with  Cincinnati 
and  Cleveland,  and  the  counties  covered  by 
New  York,  the  terms  are  synonymous.  But 
the  county  is  a  much  truer  expression  of  pub- 
lic sentiment  than  any  smaller  unit  v.'hich  can 
scarcely  avoid  being  dominated  by  some  one 
class  alone.  In  the  majority  of  the  counties 
of  most  states,  with  a  city  with  real  city  social 
and  political  problems  as  countyseat,  the 
102 


THE   CITY   PROBLEM. 

county  vote  on  saloons  or  no  saloons  conforms 
to  the  demands  of  broad  and  fair  reform. 
Otherwise  it  is  as  sectional  and  unfair  as  the 
wards  of  a  city  which,  often,  merely  crowd 
the  saloons  from  the  more  respectable  sections, 
where  their  ravages  can  better  be  borne,  to 
the  poorer  sections  already  saturated  with  beer. 
Temperance  people  may  use  the  different  gov- 
ernmental units  for  all  the  good  that  can  be 
procured  from  them  but  the  inherent  unfair- 
ness of  submitting  the  option  on  a  state-wide 
problem  to  the  will  of  the  sort  of  people  who 
may  happen  to  inhabit  any  small  region,  and 
compel  the  rest  of  the  community  and  the  state 
to  help  bear  the  consequences,  should  at  the 
same  time  be  fairly  held  in  mind. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  City  Problem. 

Strong,   "The  Challenge  of  the  City,"   16-68. 
Wilcox,  "The  American  City,"  1-27. 
Dole,  "The  Spirit  of  Democracy,"  216-232. 
Commons,  "City  Life,  Crime  and  Poverty,"  Chau- 

tauquan,  April,  1904,  115. 
Strong,  "Our  Country,"  71-78,  128-144. 
Strong,  "The  Twentieth  Century  City,"  33-102. 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  78-81. 
Loomis,  "Modern  Cities,"  27-53. 
^Strong,  "The  Challenge  of  the  City,"  61. 
'Statistical  Abstract,  for  1906,  687. 
The  City  Population. 
Strong,  "The  Challenge  of  the  City,"  131-164. 
Strong,  "Our  Country,"  68-78,  84-85,   128-144. 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  81-88. 
Commons,  "City  Life,  Crime  and  Poverty,"  Chau- 

tauquan,  April,  1904,   115. 
193 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's,  April, 
1907. 

'Riis,  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  ch.  18. 

^Grose,  "Aliens  or  Americans  ?"  216. 

'Commons,  "City  Life,   Crime  and  Poverty." 

'Turner,   McClure's,  April,   1907,  580. 
The  Saloon  and  the  Housing  Problem. 

Rowntree  and   Shervvell,   "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem," 40-44. 

Strong,  "The  Challenge  of  the  City,"  93-106. 

^Gould,  "The  Social  Conditions  of  Labor." 

^"Environment  and  Drink,"  No.  Am.  Review,  Vol. 
161,  460. 

'Same. 
The  City  Vote. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  76-81. 

Bryce,  "American  Commonwealth,"  Vol.  IL,  Chap- 
ters 43-44. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem   and  Social  Reform,"'  114-115. 

Strong,  "The  Challenge  of  the  City,"  62-64. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClure's,  April, 
1907. 

Wright,  "Bossism  in  Cincinnati,"  41-112. 

'Wheeler,   Prohibition,"   76. 

^Coler,  "Municipal  Government,"  186. 

'Wright,  "Bossism  in  Cincinnati,"  68. 

'Same,  71. 

'Same,  81. 


194 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

The  Family  Drink  Bill. — "Among  our  work- 
ing people,"  says  Prof.  Schmoller,  of  Berlin, 
one  of  the  most  important  of  recent  econom- 
ists, "the  conditions  of  domestic  life,  of  edu- 
cation, of  property,  of  progress  or  degradation, 
are  all  dependent  upon  the  proportion  of  in- 
come that  flows  down  the  father's  throat.  The 
whole  condition  of  our  lower  and  middle 
classes — one  might  without  exaggeration  say 
the  future  of  our  nation — depends  upon  this 
question."^ 

This  is  Germany,  where  beer-drinking  is  at 
its  best ;  where  moderation  is  supposed  to  pre- 
vail, where  excess  is  seldom  found  and  where 
beer  is  as  pure  and  perfect  as  science  and  the 
supervision  of  government  inspectors  that  in- 
spect can  make  it.  These  are  the  people  so 
frequently  pointed  out  as  suffering  little  or  not 
at  all  from  liquors.  But  the  facts  show  that 
the  economic  consequences  alone  of  the  univer- 
sal drink  custom,  especially  on  the  family,  are 
frightful  and  constitute  a  menace  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  race  and  nation.  With  low  wages 
and  heavy  taxes  the  purchase  of  four,  ten  or 
even  twenty  glasses  of  beer  per  day  is  a  fixed 
and  regular  drain ;  it  may  not  produce  the  de- 
gree of  drunkenness  found  in  England    and 

195 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

some  Other  countries,  but  it  limits  the  food  sup- 
ply and  makes  the  drinker  dull  and  slow-going, 
thus  reducing  his  earning  capacity  while  lead- 
ing to  early  sickness  and  degeneracy. 

The  liquor  craving  is  at  best  an  abnormal 
economic  demand.  When  fully  acquired  it  is 
a  most  persistent  and  growing  item  of  expense 
in  the  family  budget.  Its  gratification  takes 
precedence  to  that  of  any  legitimate  desire  or 
need  on  the  part  of  wife,  children  or  aged  pa- 
rents. How  it  conditions  domestic  happiness 
is  best  shown  by  a  study  of  its  relation  to  each 
of  the  three  fundamental  necessities  of  life — 
food,  clothing  and  shelter. 

Among  the  great  mass  of  people  dependent 
upon  their  daily  earnings,  laboring  men  in  fac- 
tory or  office  or  on  the  farm,  as  well  as  among 
the  poorer  classes,  the  standard  of  family  liv- 
ing will  rise  as  the  drink  bill  is  cut  off,  or  fall 
as  an  increasing  ratio  is  spent  for  this  purpose. 
The  first  heavy  burden  always  falls  upon  the 
home — a  poorer  house  or  more  crowded  rooms 
must  be  procured.  Next  in  order  follows  food 
reduction ;  cheaper  in  quality  and  less  in  quan- 
tity. Last  of  all,  and  only  when  the  strictest 
economy  is  exacted  in  order  to  furnish  more 
money  for  beer,  will  most  people  save  to  any 
great  extent  in  clothing.  As  a  symbol  of  re- 
spectability this  will  be  clung  to  most  frantic- 
ally by  the  family  of  the  drunkard  being  drawn 
down  in  the  social  scale  by  the  liquor  burden. 

It  is  on  the  rent  that  the  most  heartless  sav- 
ing takes  place.  The  narrowed  quarters, 
crowded  rooms,  filthy  surroundings  and  broken 
spirits  of  the  home  where  a  large  share  of  the 
income  is  spent  for  drink  must  be  borne  chiefly 

196 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

by  the  innocent  members.  The  man  himself 
may  seek  selfishly  the  companionship  of  the 
street  corner  or  saloon ;  the  wife  and  children 
must  endure  without  relief  day  or  night  the 
unhealthful  rooms  which  his  indulgence  makes 
necessary. 

According  to  the  conservative  estimate  of 
the  American  Grocer^  the  per  capita  cost  of 
drink  is  $17.74  each  year.  Counting  the  aver- 
age family  at  five  members,  the  yearly  family 
drink  bill  is  $88.70  for  temperate  and  intemper- 
ate families  alike.  The  American  Prohibition 
Year  Book's  estimate^  is  $27.64  per  capita  or 
$138.20  per  family.  Shut  the  saloon  and  the 
average  American  family  will  have  from  $7.00 
to  $11.00  each  month  with  which  to  provide 
for  itself  adequate,  comfortable  and  decent  liv- 
ing. It  would  settle  the  housing  problem  and 
wipe  out  the  slums  of  our  great  cities  at  one 
stroke. 

The  second  great  slice  made  in  the  family 
necessities  on  account  of  the  money  spent  for 
liquor  is  in  food.  The  compulsory  education 
department  of  the  Chicago  school  board  re- 
ports* that  5,000  school  children  are  sent  to 
school  breakfastless,  and  that  of  10,070  cases 
examined,  55  per  cent  are  sufferers  from  mal- 
nutrition. Neglect,  drunkenness  of  one  or  both 
parents,  and  sickness  were  found  to  be  the 
great  causes  in  most  cases.  Hundreds  of 
mothers  were  found  who  went  to  bed  hungry 
in  order  that  the  children  might  have  some- 
thing to  eat  next  morning.  Often  fathers  were 
beneficiaries  of  the  free  lunch  counters  in  sa- 
loons while  the  rest  of  the  family  went  half 
starved. 

197 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM, 

It  is  said  that  "two  temperance  people  can 
be  supported  on  the  land  needed  to  support  the 
coarse  tastes  of  one  regular  frequenter  of  the 
saloon."^  The  following  figures  are  not  in- 
tended as  proof  of  this  statement,  yet  they 
serve  to  illustrate  it  and  to  show  how  a  vast 
amount  of  good  food  value  is  lost  in  the  manu- 
facture of  alcoholic  liquors.  Official  figures 
show  that  in  1906  there  were  so  used  101,284,- 
000  bushels  of  grain,  rye,  com,  barley  and 
wheat.**  It  has  been  estimated  that  notwith- 
standing the  variety,  this  amount,  if  made  into 
flour,  would  produce  an  average  of  40  pounds 
per  bushel'  or  4,040,000,000  pounds  of  flour. 
Since  each  40  pounds  yields  60  pounds  of 
bread,  the  grain  worse  than  wasted  in  making 
alcoholic  poison  would  give  instead  6,060,000,- 
000  one-pound  loaves  of  bread.  This  would 
give  every  man,  woman  and  child  of  our  95,- 
000,000  population  63  loaves  or  apportion  315 
to  every  family.  There  is  thus  destroyed, 
without  adequate  economic  return,  sufficient 
raw  food  stuff  to  give  every  one  in  the  nation 
a  loaf  of  bread  daily  for  two  months,  or  more 
than  enough  to  feed  the  entire  "submerged 
tenth"  a  year. 

On  the  third  chief  item  of  family  necessity, 
dress,  the  consequences  of  the  drink  bill  are 
not  quite  so  marked  although  equally  severe. 
Clothes  are  the  social  and  cultural  indication 
of  the  wearer.  They  give  "standing"  as  noth- 
ing else  does.  Physical  suffering,  lack  of  food, 
cold,  and  disease  will  be  borne  in  silence ;  any- 
thing will  be  sacrificed  before  this  tag  of  re- 
spectability is  left  go. 

The  ragged  and  shabby  appearance  of  the 

198 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

drunkard's  family  are  only  too  well  told  by  the 
heart-rending  stories  of  the  old-time  temper- 
ance agitator.  They  can  not  be  overdrawn. 
They  reveal  the  extreme  of  the  truth ;  they 
mark  the  limit  of  suffering  and  sacrifice  de- 
manded to  gratify  the  drink  appetite.  The 
smart,  but  stylish  and  cheap  Sunday  dress,  so 
often  worn  by  the  daughters  of  the  very  poor, 
is  but  the  meanest  contrast  with  the  garment 
which  it  must  replace  instantly  on  reaching 
home.  Wife  and  children  are  again  the  great- 
est as  well  as  the  innocent  sufferers  because 
of  the  money  lost  on  drink. 

The  Suffering  Unit. — In  the  earlier  days  the 
use  of  alcoholic  liquors  in  the  home  by  the 
older  members  of  the  family  and  sometimes 
by  children  was  almost  universal,  as  it  is  in 
European  countries  at  the  present  time.  Dur- 
ing recent  years  home  drinking  has  been  very 
much  reduced ;  it  is  found  today  only  among 
certain  classes,  newly  arrived  immigrants  and 
foreign  "colonies,"  the  more  wealthy,  certain 
classes  of  wage  earners  and  among  mixed 
classes  in  local  prohibition  territory  in  large 
cities.  Among  others  the  custom  has  become 
almost  extinct.  Where  formerly  almost  every- 
body drank,  now  scarcely  more  than  one  out 
of  four  drinks,  while  it  has  been  estimated,  for 
example  in  Boston,^  that  one  family  out  of  four 
is  more  or  less  severely  afflicted  with  one  or 
more  drinking  members. 

During  the  last  fifty  years  the  development 
of  the  modern  stand-up  saloon  has  had  much 
to  do  with  taking  intoxicants  out  of  the  home. 
But  the  social  consequences  have  varied  in  the 
opposite  direction.      Fewer    members    of  the 

199 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

family  drink,  but  the  saloon  has  made  drinking 
excessive ;  it  has  removed  restraints ;  the  bar 
has  developed  the  unlimited  evils  of  the  treat- 
ing habit ;  the  saloon  has  become  a  lounging 
place  for  men  in  competition  with  the  home, 
while  drinking  by  women  in  public  very  re- 
cently has  grown  rapidly.  The  social  and  po- 
litical vices  connected  with  the  liquor  problem 
mostly  find  their  center  in  the  saloon.  In  brief, 
the  habit  has  become  individualistic ;  the  con- 
sequences social.  The  evils  resulting  are  more 
than  ever  shifted  to  the  family  as  a  whole.  All 
grades  of  society  despise  the  hard  drinker ; 
it  is  the  innocent  members,  not  the  sense- 
blighted  inebriate,  that  feel  this  social  ostra- 
cism. The  heavy  drinker  can  not  injure  him- 
self more  severely  now  than  he  could  a  cen- 
tury ago  when  almost  everybody  took  some- 
thing; but  the  wife  and  children  suffer  moral- 
ly, in  social  standing  and  in  lack  of  support, 
from  a  drink  bill  three  times  as  great.  He  may 
lose  his  place  in  a  paying  employment  more 
quickly ;  they  degenerate  into  poverty  even 
more  rapidly. 

The  intensified  burden  that  this  historical 
differentiation  has  thrown  upon  the  average 
family,  dependent  upon  its  daily  earnings,  has 
been  relieved  slightly  in  certain  economic  fea- 
tures by  concurrent  developments.  The  ten- 
dency of  fewer  women  to  drink  insures  better 
home  care ;  the  centralization  into  saloons  has, 
until  very  recently,  aided  in  keeping  them  from 
its  use ;  modern  industrial  movements  have 
opened  many  new  lines  of  employment  for 
women  and  children  so  that,  in  case  the  saloon 
takes  too  large  a  share  of  the  man's  earnings, 

200 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

they  become  less  dependent  upon  him  for  sup- 
port. 

But,  on  the  whole,  for  the  drinking  classes, 
the  saloon  is  out-substituting  the  home.  It  has 
taken  the  place  of  something  better  for  thou- 
sands of  its  patrons.  Many  who  now  have  no 
place  in  which  to  have  a  good  time  once  had 
home  life,  the  real  kind ;  many  have  belonged 
to  wholesome  and  unquestionable  clubs — so- 
cial, literary  and  semi-religious,  or  wholly  so. 
These  supplied  fully  the  "club"  demands  of 
modern  society. 

The  saloon  has  preempted  this  ground  for 
economic  purposes.  It  has  added  to  legitimate 
attractions  those  which  society  is  never  bound 
to  respect — the  encouragement  of  unlimited 
personal  liberty,  evil  habits  and  the  gratifica- 
tion of  a  craving  for  morbid  sociability.  It 
has  made  impossible  organizations  for  better 
athletic,  social  or  political  ends. 

There  is  no  substitute  for  the  saloon.  The 
sale  of  alcoholic  intoxicants,  its  fundamental 
aim,  forever  rules  it  out  from  all  normal  place 
in  society.  The  Supreme  Court  bases  its  deci- 
sion upon  this  social  fact  when  it  says,  "There 
is  no  inherent  right  in  a  citizen  to  sell  intoxi- 
cating liquors  at  retail.  It  is  not  the  privilege 
of  a  citizen  of  a  state  or  of  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States."^ 

To  consider  therefore  only  or  chiefly  the  in- 
dividual drinker,  man  or  woman,  is  not  only 
inadequate  but  also  very  misleading.  The 
question  is  not  a  personal  one.  The  family  is 
the  affected,  suffering  unit.  It  is  the  proper 
basis  from  which  to  measure  the  consequences 
of  drink.    The  individual  gets  all  the  good,  if 

201 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

there  is  any — the  pleasures  of  taste,  stimula- 
tion and  sociability ;  the  other  members  bear 
the  load  of  suffering.  The  family  is  nature's 
primary  social  unit  and  upon  it  falls  the  heav- 
iest burdens  that  come  from  drink. 

Drink  Among  Women. — During  the  period 
that  liquor  drinking  was  being  centralized  into 
saloons,  business  places  set  apart  for  that  one 
purpose,  there  was  a  marked  decrease  in  the 
number  of  women  drinkers  and  in  the  amount 
consumed  by  them.  Following  this  were  the 
temperance  and  total  abstinence  advances,  each 
of  which  was  more  sweeping  among  female 
than  among  male  drinkers.  Now  it  has  long 
been  considered  disreputable  for  women  to 
frequent  or  drink  in  saloons. 

Very  recently  there  has  been  a  decided  re- 
versal in  the  current  of  progress.  Indulgence 
in  intoxicants  among  women  is  again  on  the  in- 
crease. Growing  independence  industrially  is 
removing  conventional  and  social  restraint. 
Enlarged  opportunity  for  self-support,  work 
in  factories,  stores  and  offices,  has  brought  a 
much-needed  economic  independence  to  an 
army  of  women  wage  earners  but  it  has  been 
accompanied  by  two  vicious  contingent  conse- 
quences, (1)  the  new  industrial  equality  af- 
forded working  girls  has  suggested  powerful- 
ly a  demand  on  their  part  for  equal  freedom  in 
drinking  in  public  places,  smoking  cigarettes, 
and  for  a  bold  life  in  general  hitherto  confined 
by  custom  to  men,  and  (2)  the  low  wages  paid 
in  many  department  stores  and  factories  has 
brought  pressure  on  the  employees  to  eke  out 
an  additional  income  by  immoral  means,  the 
break-down  almost  always  being  by  the  route 

202 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

of  the  saloon  with  its  ladies'  entrance.  Among 
women  not  dependent  upon  their  own  earnings 
there  is  a  similar  demand  for  equality,  a  fatally 
lowered  equality  though  it  is.  The  saloon  and 
the  club  take  men  away  at  nights ;  women  are 
demanding  and  taking  similar  freedom,  es- 
pecially among  some  of  the  so-called  upper 
classes.  There  is  a  decided  growth  in  the 
drink  habit  among  young  and  middle-aged 
women  in  society  functions,  at  restaurants, 
soda  fountains  and  other  polite  subterfuges 
and  substitutes,  to  say  nothing  of  the  increased 
patronage  of  the  saloon  itself.  Some  high 
grade  soda  fountains  and  refreshment  parlors, 
making  this  their  whole  business,  are  nothing 
but  women's  saloons,  where  would-be  refined 
women  and  girls  may  take  their  wine  concoc- 
tions and  cock-tails,  combined  with  other 
drinks  or  "straight,"  without  suffering  social 
odium.  Some  of  these  places  carry  regular  re- 
tail liquor  dealers'  licenses.  Most  saloons  in  the 
larger  cities  have  the  "family  entrance,"  the 
side  door  to  wine  rooms,  private  sitting  rooms, 
etc.  Beer  wagons  do  an  immense  trade  to  resi- 
dences and  flats,  particularly  in  districts  where 
the  saloon  has  been  excluded  by  local  action. 
Having  it  right  at  hand  by  the  bottle  or  case, 
the  woman  inclined  to  use  beer  and  afforded 
an  excuse  by  the  short-sighted  advice  of  a 
physician  often  drinks  to  excess  when  alone 
and  lonesome  during  the  quiet  hours  of  the 
day.  In  twenty  years  in  Great  Britain  there 
has  been  an  increase  of  43  per  cent  in  the  num- 
ber of  deaths  of  males  due  to  liquor ;  of  fe- 
males, in  the  same  time,  104  per  cent,^  indicat- 
ing that  excessive  drinking  among  women  has 
303 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

grown  almost  three  times  as  rapidly  as  it  has 
among  men,  a  fearful  menace  to  the  future  of 
the  British  peoples  where  drinking  is  much 
more  unrestrained  and  general  than  it  is  in 
America. 

"Luxury  drinking"  is  very  common  among 
the  society  and  leisure  classes ;  lacking  a 
healthful  occupation  and  aim  in  life  they  turn 
to  alcohol  for  a  spur  to  exertion  in  the  pursuit 
of  further  pleasure  or  to  escape  depression. 
The  women  of  the  "upper  400"  are  almost  in- 
variably inebriated  to  a  more  or  less  degree. 
Opposite  motives  drive  the  poorer  and  labor- 
ing classes  to  the  false  relief  afforded  by  in- 
toxicants ;  over  fatigue,  sickness,  the  awful 
grind  of  daily  dullness  and  drudgery  and  the 
craving  for  excitement  produce  "misery 
drinking,"  a  means  of  temporary  relief  from 
the  burdens  of  poverty  and  sickness  that  would 
be  excusable  if  its  consequences  were  not  so 
frightful.  Men  drink  and  flee  their  cares; 
why  should  not  women  do  the  same. 

Such  drinking,  whether  among  rich  or  poor, 
is  an  unmitigated  peril  to  the  home  and  ulti- 
mately to  the  nation  and  the  race.  The  wom- 
an of  wealth,  sipping  her  champagne  in  a  high- 
class  restaurant-saloon,  or  in  the  privacy  of 
her  mansion,  is  as  much  a  monstrosity  and 
blight  to  social  welfare  as  is  the  poor  wreck, 
soaked  with  cheap  beer,  who  starves  her  chil- 
dren while  she  rolls  on  the  floor  of  her  filthy 
tenement. 

From  the  homes  of  drinking  parents,  espec- 
ially of  drinking  mothers,  come  most  of  the 
criminals  and  defectives  that  become  public 
charges. 

204 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

1.  The  children  are  predisposed  to  a  ner- 
vous instability  which  leads  directly  to  drink 
and  repeated  alcoholism ;  or  it  takes  different 
directions,  resulting  in  idiocy,  insanity,  mor- 
bid depression,  warped  moral  judgment  and 
lack  of  control,  crime,  homicide  or  suicide. 

2.  Children  are  underfed  during  infancy 
and  older  childhood,  those  having  the  misfor- 
tune to  escape  an  early  grave  growing  up  un- 
developed in  both  mind  and  body.  If  such 
become  criminals  they  are  scarcely  responsi- 
ble ;  it  was  the  alcohol  used  by  their  parents, 
and  the  government  that  permitted  its  sale, 
that  mutilated  their  moral  character  for  life. 

3.  The  home  training  where  mothers  drink 
is  less  than  nothing — there  is  no  escape  from 
the  overwhelming  example  of  an  inebriate 
mother. 

Liquor  and  National  Welfare. — Its  relation 
to  the  welfare  of  society  as  a  whole  is  the  final 
test  of  the  worth  or  danger  of  a  social  institu- 
tion or  custom.  The  family  is  nature's  first 
and  lasting  unit  of  social  organization.  On  its 
permanence  and  purity  depend  the  welfare  of 
the  individual  himself  no  less  than  the  con- 
tinued existence  of  the  state  as  a  whole. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  home  and  the 
family,  the  drink  habit,  the  drink  bill  and  the 
saloon  have  no  redeeming  features.  The  at- 
tractions of  the  saloon,  drawing  so  inevitably 
from  the  home,  make  them  direct  competitors. 
With  the  family  regarded  as  a  righteous  insti- 
tution, the  final  outcome  of  ages  of  experi- 
ment, it  must  follow  that  to  reclaim  success- 
fully those  suffering  from  intemperance,  the 
saloon  must  be  replaced  by  its  true  substitute, 
205 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

the  home.  Thousands  of  cirink  ruined  homes 
proclaim  the  additional  need  of  organized 
force,  law  and  government,  in  the  suppression 
of  the  interpolated  institution,  while  all  sorts 
of  philanthropic  organizations  are  at  work  to 
improve  the  conditions  surrounding  needy 
homes.  If,  as  the  drink  bill  rises  that  of  rent 
falls,  so  in  the  reverse  order,  rent  rises  as  the 
cost  of  drink  is  reduced.  The  quality  of  home 
life  varies  inversely  as  the  amount  of  liquor 
used.  It  may  not  be  possible  to  prove  scien- 
tifically just  which  is  cause,  intemperance  or 
poverty.  But,  in  any  event  the  drink  bill  is 
the  least  excusable  and  most  unnecessary  of 
all  waste,  and  in  this  sense  it  is  cause.  It  makes 
no  difference  practically  whether  the  excessive 
use  of  liquor  followed  or  preceded  the  fall 
into  poverty. 

On  its  sociability  side  the  saloon  does  fur- 
nish something  of  value  to  certain  classes  of 
people.  But  it  accomplishes  this  by  depriving 
the  other  members  of  the  family  of  the  money, 
ambitions  and  ideals  necessary  to  get  for  them- 
selves a  better  grade  of  social  life  and  more 
of  it.  It  is  a  very  expensive  club  for  the  poor 
man  and  a  very  selfish  one  as  regards  his 
family.  Much  of  its  sociability  is  accom- 
panied by  the  stimulation  of  habits  and  asso- 
ciations which  reflect  back  with  all  their 
viciousness  upon  the  home. 

Thousands  of  women,  burdened  with  the 
care  of  large  families,  are  compelled  to  neg- 
lect the  most  important  duties  that  can  fall 
to  them,  and  seek  employment  in  factories 
and  shops  on  account  of  the  head  of  the  family 
having  become  worse  than  useless  through 
206 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

his  slavery  to  alcohol.  Two  specially  serious 
consequences  follow,  both  of  which  serve  as 
complicating  causes  in  two  other  great  public 
questions.  First,  neglect  in  early  home  train- 
ing is  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  law- 
defying  spirit  among  growing  boys  and  girls, 
and  later  of  fully  developed  crime.  Second, 
driven  by  the  absolute  need  of  a  bare  subsist- 
ence, and  unable  to  demand  for  themselves 
what  their  labor  is  actually  worth,  these 
women  are  complicating  the  industrial  prob- 
lem. They  lower  wages  in  the  labor  market 
not  only  for  themselves  and  for  other  women 
who  enter  industrial  lines,  because  they  prefer 
independence,  but  what  is  infinitely  worse,  for 
men  who  are  earning  for  a  whole  family.  The 
evil  consequences  thus  fall  not  only  upon  the 
drunkard's  wife,  driven  by  abject  necessity  to 
desert  the  home  where  she  is  so  much  needed, 
but  also  upon  the  women  of  other  laboring 
men's  households,  where  all  are  temperate,  but 
where  the  husband's  earnings  are  reduced  by 
this  unnatural  competitive  factor. 

Two  kinds  of  inheritance  that  constitute  a 
serious  menace  to  the  race,  follow  the  use  of 
intoxicants  by  any  considerable  class  of  people : 
(1)  Social, — the  example  of  drinking  parents, 
the  lack  of  or  wrong  sort  of  moral  training, 
the  psychic  effects  of  drink  surroundings,  the 
poverty,  disgrace,  shame-facedness  on  small 
and  growing  children,  are  a  cause  of  general 
inefficiency  and  crime  compared  with  which 
even  the  evil  accompaniments  of  the  saloon 
are  very  small.  (2)  The  transmission  of 
warped  and  dwarfed  intelligence,  accompany- 
ing defects  in  nerve  structure,  and  resulting 

207 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

in  epilepsy,  impulsiveness  and  criminal  con- 
duct ;  these  all  tend  toward  the  formation  of 
racial  characteristics.  On  the  scale  that  liquor, 
especially  beer,  is  now  used  among  large 
classes,  it  means  a  far-reaching  menace  to  the 
future  of  the  race. 

As  Horace  Mann  has  said,  "The  intemper- 
ate man,  who  has  no  resource  but  his  labor, 
experiments  upon  his  children  to  find  the  mini- 
mum of  possible  subsistence."  The  cost  is  too 
great.  Society  cannot  pay  it  without  mort- 
gaging the  future  of  the  race.  The  family  of 
the  wealthy  inebriate  tends  to  exterminate  it- 
self ;  that  of  the  poor  drunkard  becomes  a  pub- 
lic burden.  Even  among  those  earning  fair 
incomes,  as  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  has  said,  "The 
family  budget  of  the  average  wage-earner  is 
not  so  flexible  that  liberal  expenditures  may 
be  made  for  drink  with  impunity.  So  delicate- 
ly adjusted  is  the  balance  that  the  status  of  a 
new  generation  is  largely  determined  by  the 
quantity  of  liquor  the  fathers  consume} 

"The  worst  feature  of  the  domestic  phase 
is  that  the  passion  for  drink  ruins  affection, 
breaks  family  ties  and  makes  men  callous  to 
the  anguish  of  wife,  children  and  friends.  The 
frequency  of  divorce  is  one  of  the  danger  sig- 
nals. There  were  in  1903  more  than  23,000 
divorces  granted  in  the  United  States  alone. 
According  to  the  deliberate  testimony  of  the 
judges  who  legally  severed  the  matrimonial 
bonds  in  the  courts,  more  than  two-thirds  of 
the  divorces  are  occasioned  by  the  use  of  in- 
toxicants. The  alarming  laxity  of  family  ob- 
ligations unless  checked  is  certain  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  ruin  and  disaster  to  society."^ 

208 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

The  regulation  of  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
liquors  is  not  a  personal  problem.  The  in- 
dividual alone  does  not  seem  to  be  able  to  with- 
stand the  undue  attractions  of  the  saloon  with 
alcohol  as  its  essential  factor.  But  it  is  not 
the  release  of  the  slave  to  appetite  that  makes 
the  matter  one  for  public  management.  It 
is  not  to  restrict  the  moderate  drinker  in  the 
interests  of  abstract  or  ethical  good  but  to  pro- 
tect the  innocent  and  helpless  and  to  prevent 
the  physical  and  mental  break  down  of  future 
generations.  It  is  often  he,  the  steady,  moder- 
ate drinker,  who  perhaps  is  seldom  noticeably 
drunk,  that  entails  upon  his  children  the  most 
lasting  burden  in  inherited  defective  nerve 
structure.  There  can  be  no  such  personal 
liberty  to  injure  future  generations.  Certainly 
if  the  protection  of  the  public  health,  wealth 
and  morals  is  the  primary  function  of  govern- 
ment, this  which  combines  them  all  can  be 
second  to  nothing  else.  No  attitude  on  the 
part  of  law  will  give  the  family,  tempted  by 
the  blandishments  of  alcohol  and  the  saloon, 
a  fair  show  except  prohibition  with  a  well 
organized  constituency  back  of  it  to  see  to  its 
permanent  enforcement.  The  government 
should  be  on  the  side  of  the  home,  revenue 
or  no  revenue. 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  Family  Drink  Bill. 

Gould,  "Social  Condition  of  Labor." 
Peabody,  "The  Drink  Question  in  Germany,"  Na- 
tion, 54,  167. 

209 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Smith,   "Liquor  and   Labor,"   Catholic   World,   47, 

539. 
Rowntree      and      Sherwell,      "The      Temperance 

Problem  and  Social  Reform,"  7-44. 
^Peabody,  "Drink  Question  in  Germany,"   Nation, 

54,  167. 
^American  Grocer,  May  8,  1907. 
^American  Prohibition  Year  Book,   (1907)   41. 
'Chicago  Record  Herald,  Oct.  2,  1908. 
*Patton,  "Economic  Basis  for  Prohibition,"  Annals 

American  Academy,  Vol.  II,  66. 
'See  "Social  Welfare,"  79. 
'Hargreaves,  "Our  Wasted  Resources,"   116. 

The  Suffering  Unit. 
Barker,  "Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform,"  42- 
43. 

Stelzel,  "The  Workingman  and  Social  Problems," 

45-50. 
Smith,   "Liquor   and  Labor,"   Catholic   World,  47, 

539. 
Peabody,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  Forum,  21, 

595. 
Fernald,  "The  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  378-387. 
^Peabody,    "Substitutes    for    the    Saloon,"    Forum, 

21,  595. 
'Crowley  v.  Christensen,  137  U.  S.  86. 

Drink  Among  Women. 

Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  161-188,  232-234. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
42-46. 

Horsley   and    Sturge,    "Alcohol    and    the     Human 
Body,"  311-337. 

Fernald,  "The  Economics  of  Prohibition,"  383-387. 

Miller,  "Alcohol  and   Degeneration,"   Independent, 
58,  261. 

American  Prohibition  Year  Book,   (1908)   78-81. 

"The  Temperance  Problem,"  89-90. 

^Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem and  Social  Reform,"  90. 
liquor  and  National  Welfare. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
42-47. 

Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  232-235. 
210 


DRINK  AND  THE  FAMILY. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  90-91. 

Horsley  and    Sturge,    "Alcohol    and    the    Human 

Body,"  311-337. 
'Gould,  "Social  Conditions  of  Labor." 
^Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

43. 


211 


CHAPTER    XII, 

LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

The   Burden  of  Intemperance  on  Labor. — 

Upon  no  other  section  of  society  does  the 
burden  of  intemperance  rest  so  heavily  as 
it  does  upon  the  laboring  classes.  It  is 
among  those  who,  aside  from  the  farmer,  must 
earn  their  subsistence  by  daily  and  regular 
physical  work,  that  drink  causes  the  most  harm 
and  in  the  greatest  number  and  variety  of 
ways.  This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that 
this  class  contains  more  excessive  drinkers 
than  any  other,  but  that,  next  to  the  men  en- 
gaged directly  in  the  liquor  business,  no  other 
class  contains  so  low  a  per  cent,  of  total  ab- 
stainers. 

In  the  prominent  industrial  and  mining 
states,  where  the  masses  of  population  are  cen- 
tered, almost  all  of  the  men  engaged  in  un- 
skilled, and  many  of  those  in  the  more  skilled, 
trades  are  frequent  or  constant  users  of  malt 
liquors.  It  is  this  steady  average  use  of  beer, 
extending  from  very  moderate  to  constant 
soaking  on  a  wide  scale  that  makes  laboring 
people  the  greatest  of  all  sufferers  from  drink. 
Some  of  these  men  in  factory,  shop  and  mine 
would  vote  to  banish  the  saloon,  if  given  op- 
portunity. But  while  it  remains  they  are  its 
constant  patrons.     Without   property   to   fall 

212 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

back  upon  in  case  of  sickness,  accident,  or  loss 
of  work,  dependent  for  daily  living  upon 
steady  employment,  this  constant  narcotizing 
of  the  mental  faculties,  even  when  no  more 
than  two  or  three  glasses  per  day  are  taken, 
prevents  advancement,  leads  to  accidents, 
causes  unsteadiness  in  work  and  opens  the  way 
to  attack  by  tuberculosis,  pneumonia  and  other 
acute  diseases  to  which  the  drinker  is  peculiar- 
ly liable.  The  steady  expense  makes  it  impos- 
sible to  save  so  that  when  work  is  stopped  suf- 
fering quickly  follows.  Liquor  is  the  wage 
earner's  heaviest  handicap  in  his  noble  strug- 
gle for  advancement  and  an  important  compli- 
cating source  of  his  industrial  dependence. 
The  great  English  labor  leader  and  its  repre- 
sentative in  Parliament,  John  Bums,  in  a  lec- 
ture at  Manchester,  Oct.  31,  1904,  said,  "There 
is  no  class  in  ancient,  nor  any  section  of  mod- 
ern, society,  in  which  the  evil  of  drink  or  the 
scourge  of  drunkenness  has  so  mischievously 
impressed  its  destructive  effects  and  steriliz- 
ing influences  as  on  the  class  who  can  least 
resist  it — the  industrious  poor,  the  working 
classes,  on  whom  the  lot  of  manual  labor  falls." 
The  burdens  of  sickness  and  reduced  men- 
tal and  physical  vitality  are  distributed  almost 
evenly  among  all  clases  that  use  liquor  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  excessive  drinkers 
among  them.  The  social  burdens  of  crime, 
poverty  and  degeneracy,  must  be  borne  by  the 
whole  community,  rich  and  poor,  those  who 
indulge  and  those  who  do  not,  alike.  But  the 
weight  of  the  individual,  or  rather  family, 
drink  bill,  with  the  money  that  it  takes  and  the 
income  that  it  prevents,  falls  first  and  always 

213 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

upon  the  laboring  man  and  those  dependent 
upon  him.  He  must  share  with  other  citizens 
the  pubHc  expense  while  carrying  as  his  own 
burden  the  heaviest  of  them  all.  If  alcohol 
were  simply  a  harmless  luxury,  it  would  not 
be  so  bad.  It  would  mean  merely  the  cutting 
down  of  the  already  too  small  amount  spent 
for  food,  housing  and  furniture,  the  bare 
necessities  of  life.  It  would  be  merely  a  loss 
without  adequate  return. 

But  the  laborer's  liquor  bill  is  not  mere  use- 
less luxury.  The  waste  of  the  money  spent 
directly  is  the  smaller  loss.  The  greater,  is 
the  direct  injury  to  efficiency.  His  ability  to 
work  is  his  only  resource ;  it  is  the  only  com- 
modity he  has  for  sale.  Alcohol  slowly  or 
more  swiftly  lowers  his  value  in  the  labor  mar- 
ket ;  it  unsteadies  his  nerves,  makes  his  brain 
unreliable  and  his  muscles  weak,  and  slowly 
reduces  him  in  the  scale  of  producing  capac- 
ity. Thus  the  loss  of  the  money  spent  on 
liquor,  reacts  to  cause  a  second  and  more  se- 
rious loss — his  own  personal  economic  value  to 
himself,  to  his  employer  and  to  the  community. 

It  is  the  better  classes  of  labor  that  must  suf- 
fer most  in  this  respect  simply  because  they 
have  the  better  qualifications  and  therefore 
the  most  to  lose.  "The  ravages  of  intemper- 
ance are  most  plainly  to  be  traced  in  classes 
distinctly  above  the  pauper  class.  It  is  among 
artisans  and  those  capable  of  earning  good 
wages  that  the  most  energy  is  spent  for  alco- 
hol and  the  most  vitality  burned  out  by  it."^ 

A  third  way  in  which  liquor  serves  to  in- 
crease the  financial  burden  of  the  wage-earner 
is  through  the  part  it  plays  in  the  introduction 

214 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

of  cheap  labor  into  the  labor  market.  The 
scaling  down  of  the  family  necessities  to  meet 
the  father's  drink  bill  compels  members  of 
the  family  that  ought  not  to  be  so  employed, 
the  mother  and  children,  to  help  earn  a  bare 
living.  These  women,  driven  by  the  cry  for 
bread,  are  willing  to  work  for  any  price.  The 
market  feels  the  result ;  wages  are  reduced  in 
response  to  this  abnormal  sort  of  competition 
and  men  are  thrown  out  of  employment. 
Wages  in  general  are  affected  and  the  temper- 
ate laborer,  and  his  family,  the  innocent,  must 
bear  a  part  of  the  consequences. 

A  false  idea  of  sociability  has  developed  the 
treating  custom.  On  the  night  after  payday 
many  a  man  spends  far  more  for  drink,  to  be 
a  "good  fellow"  with  the  boys,  than  he  would 
for  himself  alone,  and  so  adds  to  his  own  ex- 
cessive drinking  as  v/ell  as  to  his  expense. 
This  custom  is  common  to  nearly  all  drinking 
classes  but  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
laboring  man  since  his  liquor  bill  takes  already 
so  large  and  steady  a  part  of  his  meager  in- 
come. 

The  Relation  of  Drink  to  Wages. — Intemper- 
ance is  a  secondary  but  very  vital  factor  in 
that  most  discussed  of  all  economic  problems 
of  the  day,  the  wage  question. 

While  the  amount  of  wages  pure  and  sim- 
ple,— that  part  of  the  general  reward  of  indus- 
try that  goes  to  labor, — is  decided  primarily 
by  fundamental  laws  of  political  economy, 
drink,  to  the  extent  that  it  prevails  among 
working  men,  seriously  interferes  with  the 
operation  of  these  laws.  Its  bearing  is  exceed- 
ingly vital  and  especially  critical  in  the  present 

216 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Struggle  of  wage  earners  for  a  larger  share  in 
the  general  returns  of  production.  It  touches 
and  demoralizes  the  labor  market  at  the  fol- 
lowing points : 

1.  The  efficiency  of  labor  as  a  producer  in 
adding  to  the  general  wealth  of  the  community 
and  in  winning  for  itself  its  legitimate  share 
of  the  profits  of  production. 

2.  The  number  and  insistency  of  the  com- 
peting unemployed.  This  is  an  acute  factor 
in  fixing  the  wage  scale  at  any  particular  time. 

3.  Consumption  and  the  consequent  demand 
for  new  production  and  labor. 

That  drink  reduces  earning  capacity  among 
the  more  highly  skilled  and  responsible  classes 
of  labor,  where  keen  perception,  quick  judg- 
ment and  technical  skill  are  required,  is  too 
evident  to  need  discussion.  Certain  trades  are 
more  and  more  requiring  total  abstinence.  A 
generation  ago  railroad  employees  were  among 
the  heavy  drinking  classes.  At  the  present 
time  industrial  prohibition  has  made  1,190,000 
such  men,  better  paid  than  form  rly,  total  ab- 
stainers while  on  duty  and  very  moderate 
drinkers,  if  not  abstainers,  while  off  duty.^ 
It  has  been  proven  by  very  careful  experiment^ 
that  in  typesetting,  the  use  of  one  ounce  of 
alcohol,  the  amount  contained  in  about  three 
glasses  of  beer,  even  when  taken  only  on  alter- 
nate days,  leaving  one  day  for  the  effect  to 
pass  off,  reduces  working  ability  ten  per  cent. 
Drinking  men  always  experience  greater  dif- 
ficulty in  getting  the  usual  amount  of  work 
done  on  Monday  following  the  heavier  drink- 
ing on  Saturday  night  and  Sunday. 

Thus  drink  acts  as  a  rough  means  of  classi- 

216 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

fying  labor  according  to  efficiency.  And  this 
is  a  fundamental  fact  in  the  fixing  of  wages 
where  competition  exists. 

This  sifting  process  among  the  various 
grades,  from  the  highly  skilled  to  the  most 
desultory  of  day  workmen,  leaves  the  upper 
classes  with  fewer  competitors  and  adds  to  the 
second  and  lower  grades.  So  on  to  the  most 
degrading  work  where  brain  action,  judg- 
ment, and  care  are  superceded  by  mere  brute 
strength.  Here  the  already  overcrowded  labor 
market  becomes  glutted  by  the  constant  addi- 
tion to  it  of  those  sent  down  from  above — 
men  driven  by  the  necessity  of  a  bare  existence 
and  the  craving  of  an  abnormal  appetite  who 
are  willing  to  work  for  the  lowest  of  wages. 

Temporarily,  the  temperate  skilled  may 
profit  by  this  reduction  in  their  ranks  through 
intemperance  or  any  similar  vice  that  takes 
off  the  edge  of  skill.  They  gain  the  advantage 
of  a  sort  of  monopoly.  This  is  true  so  long  as 
competition  is  the  only  operating  force.  But 
other  powerful  factors  enter.  The  lowest 
classes  are  degraded  by  this  influx  of  liquor- 
benumbed  labor.  They  are  compelled  to  adopt 
the  lowest  possible  standard  of  living,  and  con- 
sumption, the  prime  source  of  production,  and 
so  of  the  demand  for  labor,  reacts  finally  upon 
labor  itself  and  a  larger  unemployed  class  re- 
sults. 

It  is  a  primary  economic  fact  that  minister- 
ing to  present  wants  creates  new  ones.  The 
man  who  buys  a  home  immediately  needs  a 
great  variety  of  articles  with  which  to  furnish 
it.  In  a  poor  family  free  from  such  self- 
destroying  vices  as  drink,  a  new  want  created 

217 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

by  a  cheap  musical  instrument  gives  successive 
calls  for  more  music,  for  the  services  of  a 
teacher  and  finally  for  a  piano,  in  the  manu- 
facture and  transportation  of  which  a  very 
large  share  of  labor,  skilled  and  unskilled,  is 
required.  Gratified  desire  creates  in  multi- 
plied form  new  wants ;  leave  desire  unsatis- 
fied and  it  dies  down  to  the  most  servile  stand- 
ard of  subsistence.  Here  overbearing  capital 
steps  in,  takes  advantage  of  the  oversupply  of 
this  cheap,  unprotesting  class  and  all  labor  is 
robbed  of  its  rightful  share  in  the  fruits  of 
production. 

The  desire  for  alcohol  serves  only  to  create 
a  further  demand  for  itself.  In  its  manufac- 
ture fewer  laborers  are  required^  than  in  the 
production  of  any  of  the  ordinary  necessities, 
conveniences  or  even  luxuries,  of  everyday 
average  living.  Money  spent  for  liquor  does 
less,  therefore,  in  creating  a  demand  for  new 
labor  than  when  spent  for  any  one  of  a  thou- 
sand legitimate  needs.  The  use  of  intoxicants 
instead  of  creating  new  wants,  merely  monop- 
olizes more  healthful  ones ;  slowly  but  surely 
it  drives  out  of  existence  many  of  the  normal 
demands  of  home  life.  The  greater  the  grati- 
fication of  a  normal  demand  the  greater  other 
industries  are  benefitted ;  the  more  the  liquor 
demand  is  satisfied  the  more  other  industries 
suffer,  the  higher  the  per  cent  that  goes  to  the 
capitalist — the  brewer  and  distiller — and  to 
the  government,  and  the  less  other  wants  of 
the  drinker's  family  are  satisfied.  The  stand- 
ard of  living  sinks  lower  until  even  drink  itself 
can  scarcely  be  purchased. 

"So  far  then,  from  the  value  of  sober  labor's 

218 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

being  increased  by  drunkenness,  the  reverse 
is  true,  and  not  only  for  the  reason  just  given, 
but  fo'  another  reason  equally  apparent. 

The  drunkard  cheapens  the  labor  market 
in  the  same  way  that  the  dealer  who  sells  books 
below  cost  cheapens  and  demoralizes  the  book 
market.  The  drunkard  is  ready  to  sell,  not 
only  his  own  labor,  but  that  of  his  wife  and 
children,  at  less  than  the  real  market  value. 
The  result  is  an  eruption  of  woman  labor  and 
child  labor  at  whatever  price  employers  will 
pay.  While  we  are  trying  to  bar  out  cheap 
labor  from  abroad  the  saloon  is  steadily  cheap- 
ening labor  at  home."* 

The  place  where  drink  hurts  labor  most  is 
where  it  cuts  down  the  standard  of  living  in 
his  family  and  prevents  their  enjoying  an  all- 
round  normal  life.  The  great  army  of  con- 
sumers in  this  country  are  the  producers  them- 
selves, not  the  extravagant  rich.  Therefore 
anything  that  lowers,  or  keeps  down  their  abil- 
ity to  buy,  or  blights  hope  and  courage,  injures 
production  and  wages  more  than  any  other 
force  can  possibly  do.  The  radical  defect  is 
not  over  production  but  under  consumption 
and  uneven  distribution.  Liquor  blights  con- 
sumption, as  above  shown,  and  is  one  power- 
ful factor  in  enabling  the  wealthy  to  retain  so 
unjust  a  share  of  the  wealth  produced  by  the 
joint  operation  of  labor  and  capital. 

'Tt  is  the  man  with  many  wants,  not  luxu- 
rious fancies,  but  real  legitimate  wants — who 
works  hard  to  satisfy  his  aspirations."^ 

The  economic  value  of  moral  qualities, 
sobriety,  thrift,  strength  of  purpose,  etc.,  is 
to  create  a  whole  new  series  of  wants  and  to 
219 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

give  the  mental  strength  and  power  of  co- 
operation necessary  to  see  that  these  wants 
are  gratified.  To  deny  this  would  be  to  say 
that  the  lowest  laboring  classes  are  hopeless. 
It  is  said  that  abstinence  from  liquors  would 
make  the  workingman  willing  to  labor  for  as 
much  less  per  day  as  was  the  price  of  his  beer, 
— that  the  capitalist  alone  would  get  the  profits 
from  his  abstinence.  But  this  view  assumes 
that  moral  qualities  have  no  economic  value 
to  their  possessor — that  a  temperate  man  is  no 
more  able  to  assert  himself,  to  unite  with  other 
workmen  in  protracted  efforts  against  aggres- 
sive capital, — that  he  is  no  more  a  man  than 
the  deep  drinker.  All  science  and  experience 
deny  such  an  assumption  and  prove  the  oppo- 
site. A  man  who  has  "sworn  off"  does  not 
work  for  less  than  before.  As  a  result  of  his 
increased  personal  standard  and  self-respect 
(1)  his  standard  of  living  is  raised  and  he  can 
not  afford  to  work  for  as  little  as  before ;  (2) 
his  soberness  makes  him  able  to  enforce,  to  a 
larger  degree,  his  demands;  (3)  his  wife  and 
children,  needed  in  the  home  and  at  school, 
have  a  better  chance  of  being  withdrawn  from 
the  overcrowded  ranks  of  the  "unemployed," 
and  there  is  a  smaller  number  among  which  to 
divide  the  money  and  work  that  go  to  this  ir- 
regular class  of  workers. 

The  Struggle  Between  Capital  and  Labor. — 
One  of  the  most  serious  of  social  conditions 
of  the  present  time  is  the  struggle  between 
capital  and  labor.  Labor  is  demanding  more 
and  more  strenuously  every  day  a  larger  share 
in  the  value  it  has  done  so  much  to  create, 
higher  wages,  shorter  hours  and  better  treat- 

220 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

ment, — demands  in  themselves  most  just  and 
reasonable.  Entering  into  this  struggle,  inten- 
sifying its  differences  and  hindering  solution 
is  this  intruding  factor,  the  drink  habit.  Liquor 
may  not  be  classed  among  the  chief  causes 
of  the  labor  question,  but  it  is  an  active  factor 
in  keeping  the  dispute  open  and  one  of  the 
fundamental  reasons  why  labor  is  so  hampered 
in  its  efforts  to  defend  itself  or  gain  its  full 
rights. 

Drink  lowers  the  laboring  man's  standard  oi- 
life,  upon  which  his  standard  of  wages  largely 
depends.  The  man  who  lives  better,  purchases 
more  and  a  greater  variety  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing, and  has  higher  moral  ideas,  is  always 
worth  more  economically  and  is  able  to  de- 
mand more  wages,  and  because  of  his  higher 
standard  is  able  to  enforce  his  demands  to  a 
greater  extent.  The  laborer  who  is  sodden 
with  drink  is  willing  to  put  up  with  anything ; 
his  wages  will  be  low  to  correspond  with  his 
low  standard  of  life  and  he  will  become  more 
and  more  unable  to  hold  his  own  in  the  strug- 
gle with  capital. 

The  wealthy  man  may  be  able  to  carry  the 
weight  of  excessive  alcoholic  indulgence  and 
suffer  little  financially  on  account  of  it.  He 
has  money  to  pay  for  it ;  his  family  need  not 
suffer  and  his  position  in  the  community  may 
be  maintained  by  the  use  of  money.  Not  so 
with  the  poor  man.  The  drink  burden  strikes 
his  welfare  at  more  vital  places.  Indeed, 
liquor  seems  to  be  an  ally  to  the  oppressor  of 
labor.  The  "scabs"  who  break  up  strikes  come 
from  the  reckless,  heavy-drinking  classes. 
Drink  is  an  enemy  to  union  labor  in  that  it 

221 


THE  SOCIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

interferes  with  the  self  restraint  necessary  to 
carry  out  steady  co-operative  effort  for  more 
distant  ends.  The  influence  of  the  labor  union 
is  now  against  the  saloon.  President  Gompers 
of  the  American  Federation  said,  "Fifteen  or 
twenty  years  ago  the  common  meeting  place 
of  union  labor  would  be  a  saloon  or  the  room 
adjoining  a  saloon,  but  we  have  changed  all 
that.  It  was  not  good  for  the  men.  It  was 
not  good  for  the  unions.  There  was  more 
likelihood  of  violent  talk  and  unwise  measures. 
It  hurt  the  standing  of  the  unions  in  the  com- 
munity. Hence  that  is  practically  done  away." 
Many  of  the  most  active  labor  leaders  in  Amer- 
ica do  not  drink,  while  every  one  of  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  labor  party  in  the  English 
Parliament  are  total  abstainers. 

An  investigator  of  the  early  sources  of  the 
liquor  problem,  Dr.  Lees,  of  London,  cites 
manuscripts  of  the  Elizabethan  reign  to  show 
that  the  saloon,  as  such,  was  early  devised  by 
the  ruling  classes  as  a  means  of  restraining 
the  growing  independence  and  wealth  of  the 
common  people.  It  was  recommended  to  Sec- 
retary of  State  Cecil,  that  "It  must  be  cured 
by  the  providing,  as  it  were,  of  some  sewers 
or  channels  to  draw  or  suck  from  them  their 
money  by  subtle  and  indirect  means,  to  be 
handled  insensibly."  Accordingly,  licenses  to 
sell  ale  and  wine  were  lavishly  dispensed  and 
the  business  encouraged  by  the  government. 

Whether  the  saloon  was  so  devised  or  not,  it 
is  certain  that  the  wide-spread  saturation  of 
a  large  share  of  working  men  by  beer  at  the 
present  time  is  an  important  factor  in  the  bat- 
tle   for   organization.     The   brain,   not   brute 

222 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

force,  must  be  the  weapon  of  warfare  against 
overbearing  capital.  It  is  affected  by  very 
small  quantites  of  alcohol.  Against  the  alco- 
holization of  his  keenest  mental  powers  the 
out-to-win  worker  must  be  relentlessly  alert. 

Dr.  Frohlich,  of  Vienna,  states  a  foundation 
sociological  fact  in  the  following  words : 
"Alcohol  deceives  the  man  with  the  promise 
of  a  happy  present,  and  hinders  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  weight  of  misery  that  is  upon  him. 
There  is  no  easier  way  possible  to  make  the 
unfortunate  man  content  with  his  misfortunes 
than  a  couple  of  glasses  of  beer.  Every  dis- 
agreeable thought  vanishes  then,  because  the 
cortex  of  the  brain  is  deadened  and  the  man  is 
lulled  into  a  soporific  state.  We  need  men  who 
are  awake.  The  alcohol  which  puts  men  to 
sleep  is  an  enemy  to  labor  and  a  bitter  enemy 
to  the  laborer,  though  it  come  under  the  deceit- 
ful mask  of  a  friend." 

The  use  of  liquor  leads  to  outbreaks,  riots, 
destruction  of  property  and  lives  in  the  event 
of  strikes.  This  fact  is  so  well  known  that  it 
is  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  city  officials  in 
places  where  strikes  are  in  danger  of  ending 
in  riot  rigorously  to  close  all  saloons  and  keep 
them  closed.  It  is  the  liquor-excited  sub- 
leaders  who  incite  to  riot,  the  liquor-excited 
mob  that  destroys  property  and  endangers 
lives,  not  the  honest  strikers  themselves.  It  is 
this  which  more  than  anything  else  has  dis- 
graced organized  labor  and  its  undoubted  right 
to  strike.  This  phase  of  the  liquor-labor  ques- 
tion has  become  so  serious  that  if  the  right- 
eousness of  the  power  to  strike  is  to  remain, 
drunken  labor  must  go. 

223 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

At  present  the  strike  is  one  of  the  most  ef- 
fectual means  by  which  labor's  just  demands 
against  capital  may  in  the  end  be  enforced. 
When  saloon  viciousness  and  drink  corrupt  it 
the  strike  becomes  a  public  menace  which  so- 
ciety has  no  right  to  permit. 

The  burdens  of  the  laboring  man  often  seem 
heavier  than  they  are  because  of  the  drink  bill 
which  he  has  put  upon  himself.  It  is  not  a 
defense  of  low  wages  to  say  that  there  are 
thousands  of  men  who,  if  they  had  more 
money  coming  in  weekly  would  only  spend  the 
more  for  liquor  and  so  hasten  their  own  de- 
struction and  be  a  greater  burden  upon  society. 
Cesare  Lamorosi,  the  noted  Italian  criminolo- 
gist, after  the  most  careful  study  of  the  ques- 
tion, concludes  that  an  increase  of  wages  alone 
means  an  increase  of  drunkenness  and  its  ac- 
companying crimes.  Labor,  we  may  say,  de- 
cisively, ought  to  receive  vastly  more  from  its 
large  share  in  production,  but  it  can  never  win 
its  just  rights  in  its  struggle  against  aggres- 
sive capital,  nor,  if  it  should,  would  it  be  per- 
manently better  ofif  afterward,  while  bearing 
its  awful  burden  of  drink. 

Burns,  the  English  labor  leader,  shows  the 
weight  of  this  burden  by  comparing  it  with  the 
cost  of  strikes.  "In  1901,"  he  says,  "the  much 
abused  trade  unions,  with  all  their  648  strikes 
and  lockouts,  68  per  cent  of  which  were  wholly 
or  partially  successful,  inflicted  a  loss  of  half  a 
day  per  annum  on  all  the  working  classes  at 
work.  This  involved  a  loss  of  less  than  £1,- 
000,000,  for  which  they  secured  £24,000,000 
in  higher  wages  and  a  net  gain  of  over  11,- 
000,000  reduced  hours  of  work,  beyond  other 

224 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

important  conditions,  yet  on  drink,  betting  and 
gambling-,  and  the  loss  entailed  in  time  and 
money,  from  thirty  to  fifty  days  per  annum 
were  lost  with  no  adequate  advantage  at  all." 

There  is  no  security  against  tyranny,  cap- 
italistic or  political,  except  in  the  power  and 
disposition  to  resist  tyranny.  The  hard  work- 
ing laboring  classes  are  the  only  proper  and 
safe  guardians  of  their  own  interests.  If  they 
do  not  seek  these  interests  they  will  to  a  degree 
lose  them,  and  the  whole  industrial  body — but 
themselves  most  of  all — will  receive  injuries 
which  tend  to  become  permanent.  Drink 
must  be  banished  as  a  step  toward  what  ap- 
pears to  them  as  the  greater  end,  a  fair  distri- 
bution of  the  product  of  labor. 

As  an  Employer  of  Labor. — "That  capital  is 
best  employed,"  says  Professor  Hopkins,^  "and 
best  serves  the  creation  and  distribution  of 
wealth,  in  the  reproduction  of  which  the  larg- 
est possible  amount  of  labor  is  engaged,  and  in 
the  returns  for  which  labor  has  the  largest 
share."  In  view  of  this  economic  principle, 
let  us  see  what  share  labor  is  getting  from  the 
business  of  manufacturing  alcoholic  liquors. 
The  city  of  Milwaukee,  advertised  throughout 
the  world  as  a  center  of  the  brewing  industry, 
affords  the  most  fair  and  practical  example 
that  can  be  found.  In  a  statement  issued  by 
the  Manufacturers'  and  Merchants'  Associa- 
tion of  that  city  for  1903"  we  find  the  leading 
industries  of  the  city  compared  as  to  their  rela- 
tive employment  of  labor.  It  is  noticeable  that 
the  brewing  business  is  far  below  that  of  many 
others  in  its  general  importance,  and  especially 
as  a  market  for  labor.     The  metal  industries 

225 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

employed  27,977  persons ;  leather,  7,839 ;  wear- 
ing apparel,  9,733,  and  the  breweries  "which 
made  Milwaukee  famous"  and  all  others  taken 
together  only  employed  3,545.  Another  com- 
parison is  that  afforded  by  the  relative  amount 
which  labor  received  of  the  value  of  the  entire 
output  for  the  year,  which  was  as  follows : 
Metal  industries  labor  received  in  payment  of 
wages  22.9  per  cent  of  the  product  manufac- 
tured ;  leather,  14.5  per  cent ;  wearing  apparel, 
20.9  per  cent,  while  of  the  product  of  the  brew- 
eries labor  received  but  11  per  cent  of  the  out- 
put. What  does  this  indicate  in  view  of  the 
economic  principle  mentioned  above?  Mil- 
waukee business  men  as  a  whole  repudiate 
the  idea  that  beermaking  is  the  chief  industry 
of  their  city. 

In  proportion  to  the  amount  of  capital  in- 
vested in  the  liquor  business,  the  number  of 
men  furnished  employment  is  among  the  low- 
est, if  not  the  very  lowest,  of  any  of  the  great 
industries  of  the  country.  It  is  certain  then 
that  if  this  capital  were  released  and  placed  in 
another  business  it  would  greatly  stimulate 
the  demand  for  labor.  From  the  point  of  con- 
sumption, if  the  money  spent  by  laboring  men 
and  others  were  spent  for  clothing,  furniture, 
food  and  a  thousand  household  conveniences 
and  necessities,  it  would  mean  not  only  a  tre- 
mendous social  advance,  but  also  such  an  in- 
creased demand  for  these  products  that  abun- 
dant labor  would  be  provided  for  all  the  men 
now  employed  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
liquors. 

The  liquor  trade  furnishes  employment  to 
labor  at  two  points:      (1)   In  its  production 

226 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

and  sale,  and  in  those  trades  closely  allied  with 
it ;  (2)  to  the  farmer  to  the  degree  that  it 
furnishes  a  market  for  his  produce. 

As  compared  with  the  share  which  goes  to 
labor  in  other  producing  industries,  the  liquor 
traffic  makes  a  very  poor  showing,  indeed.  It 
has  been  shown^  that  of  $5.00  spent  for  each 
of  the  following  articles  labor  finally  receives 
the  amounts  indicated :  Boots  and  shoes 
$1.12;  bread,  .89;  clothing,  $1.10;  furniture, 
$1.18;  the  average  of  all  such  products,  .88; 
distilled  liquors,  .05 ;  malt  liquors,  .25. 
Twenty-five  dollars  spent  for  necessary  arti- 
cles stimulates  business,  pays  $4.40  to  labor 
in  wages,  creates  a  new  demand  for  more 
labor  and  brings  needed  supplies  into  the  fam- 
ily. Twenty-five  dollars  spent  for  liquor  gives 
labor  75  cents  worth  of  employment,  reduces 
the  demand  for  other  articles  and  interferes 
with  the  earning  capacity  of  the  laborer.  Cer- 
tainly liquor  as  an  employer  does  not  show 
itself  "the  best  friend  of  the  laboring  man." 

In  1905  there  were  employed  in  the  liquor 
producing  industries  55,407  men  as  wage  earn- 
ers,* and  several  thousand  more  in  such  closely 
related  trades  as  bottling  and  cooperage.  If 
the  value  of  the  product  at  retail  which  they 
turned  out  had  been  an  average  of  other  manu- 
factured articles,  so  much  needed  by  the  suf- 
fering poor,  the  men  required  to  produce  it 
would  have  been  406,214,  or  340,807  more 
workers  would  have  been  employed  at  $158,- 
074,402  additional  in  wages.  The  money  spent 
for  liquors,  if  put  into  an  average  of  all  other 
manufactured  articles  would  have  given  em- 
ployment for  all  those  now  engaged  in  that 

227 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

business  and  a  market  for  340,000  additional 
to  be  taken  from  the  lists  of  the  present  unem- 
ployed. 

The  advantage  to  the  farmer  would  have 
been  equally  great.  Notwithstanding  the  large 
claims  of  the  Hquor  trade  only  1.48  per  cent  of 
the  total  farm  produce  of  the  country  is  con- 
sumed by  the  brewer  and  distiller.  The  money 
used  to  purchase  this  grain  at  retail  in  the 
form  of  liquor,  as  shown  by  Ely^,  if  spent  to 
satisfy  the  rational  wants  of  the  same  families, 
made  destitute  by  intemperance,  would  pur- 
chase at  least  seven  times  as  much  grain  in 
the  form  of  flour  as  in  the  form  of  liquor. 
"Those  farmers,"  he  says^,  "who  think  the 
liquor  traffic  creates  a  demand  for  their  com- 
modities, and  those  brewers  and  distillers  who 
endeavor  to  instill  this  belief,  are  both  de- 
ceived and  deceivers." 


References  and  Authorities. 

The  Burden  of  Intemperance  on  Labor. 

Stelzel,  "The  Workingman  and  Social  Problems," 
37-40. 

Roberts,     "The     Anthracite     Coal     Communities," 
222-243. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Prob- 
lem and  Social  Reform,'"  21-34 

Warner,  "American   Charities,"  60-62. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
10-12. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  67-68. 
228 


LIQUOR  AND  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  62-70. 

Horsley    and    Sturge,    Alcohol     and     the     Human 

Body,"  91-96. 
'Warner,  "American  Charities,"  61. 
Relation  of  Drink  to  Wages. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "The  Temperance  Problem 

and  Social  Reform,"  26-29,  55-58. 
Hobson,  "Problems  of  Poverty,"  178-181. 
Horsley    and    Sturge,    "Alcohol    and    the    Human 

Body,"  92-96. 
American  Prohibition  Year  Book  (1908),  64-67. 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  68-69. 
Hopkins,   "Wealth  and  Waste,"  62-70. 
Ely,   "Political    Economy,      156. 
'See  page  99. 
^Smith,   "Alcohol  and  the   Individual,"   McClure's, 

Oct.,  1908. 
'See  page  81. 

*Wheeler,   "Prohibition,"   69. 
'Gould,  "The  Social  Condition  of  Labor,"  31. 
The  Struggle  Between  Capital  and  Labor. 

Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  "the  Temperance  Problem 

and  Social  Reform,"  44-58. 
Woolley    and    Johnson,    "Temperance    Progress," 

396-405. 
Calkins,  "Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  303-313. 
Wheeler,   "Prohibition,"   68-70. 
Frohlich,    "Alcohol    the    Workingman's    Antagon- 
ist," School  Physiology  Journal,  Nov.,  1908. 
As  an  Employer  of  Labor. 

Ely,  "Political  Economy,"   156. 

Waldron,  "Economics  of  the  Drink  Traffic,"  Chau- 

tauquan,  June,  1908. 
Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 

9-10. 
Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  57-61,  87-89. 
'Hopkins,  "Wealth  and  Waste,"  57. 
^Published  by  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Wis. 
'See  page  82. 

'Statistical  Al^,stract,   (1906),  504-505. 
^Ely,  "Political   Economy,"   156. 


229 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE  CONFLICT  OF  RACES. 

The  Negro  and  Drink. — Deep  indulgence  in 
alcoholic  liquors  is  pre-eminently  a  white  man's 
vice.  Wherever  and  whenever  the  colored 
man,  Negro  or  Indian,  has  learned  its  exten- 
sive use,  it  has  been  at  the  teaching  of  the 
superior  race.  Especially  on  the  part  of  the 
Negro  the  prompting  impulse  has  been  imita- 
tion— to  be  like  that  great  sueprior  white  race. 
Released  from  slavery,  under  which  there  was 
little  or  no  drinking,  liquor  men  began  to  take 
advantage  of  his  ignorance  and  of  his  long- 
ing to  have  every  privilege  enjoyed  by  white 
men  and  proceeded  to  create  a  new  market, 
limited,  however,  by  the  poverty  of  the  would- 
be  purchaser,  and  to  peddle  out  cheap  liquors 
to  the  ex-slaves. 

On  account  of  the  limited  degree  to  which 
the  colored  people  have  taken  to  drink,  neither 
in  the  South  nor  in  the  Northern  cities,  to 
which  they  have  been  coming  in  increasing 
numbers  in  recent  years,  have  they  suffered 
so  directly  from  drunkenness  as  have  the 
drinking  classes  among  the  whites.  The 
Negro  is  not  an  inebriate  in  the  sense  that  the 
drunken  American,  Irishman,  Englishman  or 
German  is,  with  hundreds  of  years  of  heavy 
280 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

drinking  back  of  him.  The  country  Negro  of 
the  South  finds  it  difficult  to  get  Hquor  on  ac- 
count of  the  rapidly  extending  prohibitory 
laws.  In  the  towns,  where  saloons  yet  remain, 
most  of  them  have  so  little  money  that  they 
can  pay  for  drink  only  at  long  periods.  Com- 
paratively few  are  habitual  drunkards ;  as  a 
people  they  do  not  yet  possess  a  craving  for 
intoxicants  and  have  not  inherited  convivial 
social  customs.  Investigation  by  the  Commitee 
of  Fifty,^  chiefly  among  those  in  the  North, 
shows  that  with  the  Negro  9.15  per  cent,  of  his 
direct  and  5.09  per  cent,  of  his  indirect  poverty 
is  due  to  drink,  while  of  the  white  man  19.43 
per  cent,  of  direct  and  9.18  per  cent,  of  indirect 
comes  from  the  same  source.  It  takes  time  to 
stamp  drunkenness  on  a  race  and  the  colored 
man  in  America  has  had  only  one  generation 
in  which  to  learn  the  vices  of  civilization,  since 
he  has  been  free  to  have  a  choice  in  the  mat- 
ter. In  this  one  respect  his  native  shiftless- 
ness  and  his  poverty  have  combined  with  leg- 
islation and  restraint  by  the  better  part  of  the 
white  race  to  keep  the  Negro  sober  and  pre- 
vent the  utter  debauch  and  destruction  that 
would  have  followed  such  wide  use  of  intox- 
icants as  is  practiced  by  the  more  drunken 
nationalities  mixed  with  the  Northern  peoples. 
But  the  use  of  liquor  by  Negroes,  relatively 
smaller  in  amount  though  it  may  be,  is  and  has 
been  an  ugly  factor  in  the  friction  and  quarrels 
between  the  races  in  the  South  and  has  con- 
stituted one  of  the  most  powerful  arguments 
for  the  anti-liquor  side  in  the  prohibition 
movements.  It  has  caused  the  race  friction, 
which   might   otherwise   have   been   overcome 

281 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

by  peaceable  methods,  to  break  out  into  quar- 
rels, revolting  crime,  riot  and  lynchings.  In- 
toxicants act  more  quickly  and  more  acutely 
on  the  primitive  brain,  emotions  and  passions 
of  the  colored  man,  making  him  insolent,  ex- 
aggerating his  self-conceit  and  leading  to  dis- 
turbances where  real  or  imaginary  grievances 
already  exist.  Further,  alcohol  stirs  up  his 
worst  passions  and  removes  the  little  feeling 
of  restraint  so  far  learned  by  the  lower  grades 
of  Negroes.  Naturally  easy-going  and 
amiable,  he  becomes  impudent  and  abusive. 
He  is  not  long  tolerated  in  the  saloon,  almost 
always  kept  by  white  men,  and  when  on  the 
street  continues  his  hilarity  and  improper  con- 
duct.^ 

The  keenest  of  recent  students  of  the 
psychological,  crime-producing  effects  of  alco- 
hol reach  the  conclusion  that  "quite  small 
doses  are  often  responsible  for  the  commis- 
sion of  reckless,  self-pleasing  actions  and  for 
the  inordinate  sway  of  the  passions,  which  are 
no  longer  kept  in  full  control  by  the  higher 
powers  of  the  mind,  because  these  are  more 
or  less  in  abeyance  as  the  result  of  the  paralyz- 
ing effects  of  the  drug."^ 

If  this  is  true  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  with 
more  than  a  thousand  years  of  civilization  be- 
hind him  what  may  be  expected  of  the  Negro 
only  a  hundred  years  away  from  the  African 
jungle,  where  passions,  emotions  and  natural 
impulses  were  exceptionally  strong  from  ages 
of  unregulated  control.  The  inhibiting  powers 
have  been  but  slowly  developed  since  freedom 
and  it  is  just  these  faculties  that  alcohol  first 
attacks,  as  the  scientists  show. 
282 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

Just  what  place  liquor  occupies  as  a  stimu- 
lant of  the  special  crimes  that  stir  race  hatred 
to  the  lynching  point  has  not  been  determined 
by  actual  investigation.  But  there  is  no  un- 
certainty as  to  the  attitude  of  the  best  edu- 
cated Southern  people — those  who  know  the 
colored  man  best — on  the  matter.  They  are 
determined  to  keep  liquor  from  the  Negro  at 
all  costs.  Hon.  Seaborn  Wright,  of  Atlanta, 
the  leader  of  the  prohibition  movement  in 
Georgia,  expresses  the  conviction  of  the  South- 
ern white  man  when  he  says  that  "the  develop- 
ment, the  safety,  aye,  the  very  life  of  the 
Negro  race  in  the  South  hangs  upon  his  abso- 
lute separation  from  intoxicating  liquors. 
Four-fifths  of  his  crimes  against  our  women 
come  from  this  infernal  source ;  it  is  behind 
nine-tenths  of  the  race  conflicts  in  the  South."* 
On  the  other  hand,  the  testimony  of  the  best 
educated  Negroes  is  that  "the  Negro  brute  is 
a  product  of  the  white  man's  gambling  hells, 
low  dives  and  saloons.''* 

"The  laws  of  the  slave-holding  states  made 
it  a  crime  to  furnish  liquor  to  a  slave ;  and  this 
one  thing,  in  spite  of  the  grinding  hardships 
of  slavery,  made  of  the  Negro  the  finest  physi- 
cally developed  race  on  the  continent ;  as 
mechanics,  as  masons,  as  field  laborers,  they 
were  without  superiors,  sober,  industrious, 
honest.  When  the  war  ended  the  saloon  was 
a  closed  door  to  the  Negro.  In  five  years, 
tens  of  thousands  of  'doggeries'  and  saloons, 
in  every  city  and  village  and  cross-roads,  were 
stretching  their  paralyzing  arms  to  this  semi- 
savage  child-race,  destroying  all  that  was  best 
in  the  Negro  mind  and  heart  and  body.  .  .  . 

233 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

I  tell  you,  before  God,  that  my  people,  as  mas- 
ters, were  never  enemies  of  this  helpless  race, 
as  the  brewers  and  distillers,  in  partnership 
with  the  national  government,  have  been  since 
the  Negro  in  the  sixties  stepped  out  of  the  old 
slave  quarters  into  the  open  doors  of  the  Amer- 
ican  saloon." 

Liquor  a  Factor  in  Race  Conflicts. — The  use 
of  alcoholic  intoxicants  has  a  specially  ominous 
place  in  the  quarrels  and  disturbances  that 
arise  where  two  races,  so  different  as  the 
white  and  black,  are  compelled  to  live  together 
in  the  same  community,  in  anything  like  equal 
numbers.  It  is  not  that  alcohol  hurts  the  col- 
ored man  more,  the  personal  injury  is  actually 
less,  but  that  it  serves  as  the  match  to  touch 
off  the  deeper  lying  prejudices  into  brawls, 
crime  and  riot. 

Several  factors  in  which  the  saloon  and 
liquor  are  largely  responsible  are  found  in  con- 
nection with  nearly  all  lynchings  and  riots 
based  on  race  differences.  North  or  South. 
First  is  a  preceding  period  of  lax  law  enforce- 
ment, and  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  people 
that  appeals  to  justice  will  be  ineffectual  or 
too  slow.  There  is  no  other  institution  in 
America  that  is  so  uniformly  a  law-breaker 
as  the  liquor  traffic.  There  is  none  that  so 
universally  succeeds  in  preventing  justice  or 
encourages  by  precept  and  practice  the  law- 
defying  spirit  that  disgraces  American  govern- 
ment in  the  eyes  of  Europeans. 

Another  factor  is  the  use  of  liquor  by  the 
criminal  that  has  incited  the  vengence  of  the 
mob,  and  by  the  leaders  of  the  mob.  Liquor 
is  a  predisposing  cause  for  crime  among  men 

234 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

of  any  class  with  little  self-restraint ;  the 
tongue  is  loosened,  fingers  are  ready  for  a 
quarrel,  and  impulse  and  passion  are  left  free 
to  control  action.  It  is  the  horrible  details  of 
such  impulsive  crimes  that  stir  to  vengence, 
rather  than  punishment. 

Lynchings  in  the  South  frequently  occur  in 
communities  where  there  are  no  saloons,  but 
in  most  cases  it  is  found  that  the  Negro  guilty 
of  murder  or  outrage  has  been  using  whisky 
illegally  sold  or  was  of  the  floating  type  that 
came  into  a  peaceful,  country,  no-saloon  com- 
munity from  the  low-down  grog  shop  of  the 
cities.  In  the  North  where  race  lynchings  are 
beginning  to  assume  the  same  characteristics 
as  in  the  South,  the  liquor  conditions  are  in- 
tesified.  The  mob  is  almost  always  the  out- 
put of  the  saloons,  the  loafers  and  young  men 
and  boys  from  sixteen  to  twenty-two  years  of 
age.  It  is  this  type  of  men  that  makes  the 
bulk  of  all  mobs,  North  or  South.  The  order- 
ly, peaceable  mob,  composed  of  "the  best  cit- 
izens," that  "goes  quietly  about  its  business" 
is  a  newspaper  hyperbole.  The  mob  is  mass 
passion  revenging  itself  on  individual  passion ; 
both  are  irresponsible  and  uncontrolled  and 
both  are  cowardly  when  met  by  manly 
strength.  The  psychological  action  of  the 
mob  is  such  that  laws  against  lynchings  can 
not  reach  it.  The  cure  must  be  the  same  as 
the  cure  for  the  crime  that  stirred  the  mob 
to  vengence — the  cleaning  up  of  the  condi- 
tions that  make  both  possible,  the  strict  en- 
forcement of  law,  speedy  justice,  the  removal 
of  liquor  from  the  lower  grades  and  irrespon- 
sible of  both  races,  and  proper  education.     In 

285 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

the  Northern  states  perfect  confidence  in  law 
can  never  exist  so  long  as  the  saloon  and  the 
saloon  politician  have  so  strong  a  hand  in  gov- 
ernment as  they  have  at  the  present  time. 

In  a  discussion  of  "The  Tragedy  at  At- 
lanta"^ John  Temple  Graves  presents  the 
views  of  the  best  Southern  men  in  his  state- 
ment that  the  crimes  that  stir  most  often  to 
lynching  are,  in  many  if  not  most  cases,  due 
to  the  consumption  of  whisky,  morphine,  etc., 
by  the  reckless  classes  of  Negroes — that 
whisky  plus  hot  weather  is  the  immediate  ex- 
citing cause,  though  not  finally  the  ultimate 
one,  of  the  fearful  race  riots  and  lynchings 
that  so  frequently  disgrace  that  section  of  our 
country. 

Stirred  by  reports  of  attacks  by  Negroes  on 
a  half-dozen  white  women  in  one  day,  a  mob 
lead  by  saloon  hangers-on  accumulated  and 
for  several  days  held  the  city  in  its  grasp. 
One  hundred  persons,  mostly  negroes,  were 
injured  or  killed,  stores  were  looted,  property 
destroyed,  homes  of  respectable  colored  people 
entered,  innocent  Negroes  shot  along  with  the 
guilty,  and  the  laws,  with  city  officials  indif- 
ferent or  tolerant,  were  defied.  The  Negro 
brutes  and  the  mob-leaders  were  both  the 
product  of  Atlanta's  saloons.  Had  it  not  been 
for  these  "low  whites"  and  floating  "niggers" 
the  period  of  high  tension  on  the  deeper  prob- 
lem would  have  passed  without  disgrace. 
Race  enmity  is  felt  most  by  the  least  efficient 
white  man,  who  resents  any  success  by  the 
colored  man.  It  is  the  worthless  white  and  the 
criminal  Negro,  North  as  well  as  South,  that 

236 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

are  the  easy  victims  to  violent  impulses,  and 
low  politics. 

Then  came  the  reaction  in  Atlanta — the 
serious  determination  to  remove  the  occasion 
for  such  outbreaks.  The  race  question  could 
not  be  settled  at  once ;  the  weather  could  not 
be  changed  ;  but  the  saloon  and  its  indulgences, 
its  vile  talk  and  fellow-encouragement  among 
the  victims  of  both  races,  the  saloon  and  alco- 
hol with  excuse  neither  in  nature  nor  in  indus- 
trial blunders  of  the  past  that  massed  the  races 
together — the  saloon  must  go. 

This  movement  was  not  an  attempt  to  re- 
move from  the  blacks  what  the  white  people 
wished  to  retain  for  themselves.  They  recog- 
nized its  dangers  to  both  races.  It  was  an  as- 
sertion of  the  truth  that  what  injures  one 
class  in  a  community  must  be  a  blight  and 
menace  to  all.  The  saloons  were  closed  two 
weeks.  "During  that  period  perfect  order  was 
maintained,  the  recorder's  court  docket  was 
reduced  one-half,  and  the  merchants,  espe- 
cially in  the  humbler  portions  of  the  city,  ex- 
perienced phenomenal  trade."-  Then  the  peo- 
ple began  to  ask,  "Why  not  a  year?"  "For- 
ever ?"  The  liquor  traffic  fostered  and  encour- 
aged the  depraved  and  criminal  Negro  and  the 
vengeful  and  irresponsible  white.  Of  both 
the  South  was  tired. 

Educated  Negroes  themselves  recognize 
only  too  well  the  dangers  of  liquor  in  such 
conflicts — dangers  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
amount  the  colored  people  use  of  it,  if  com- 
pared with  the  foreign-born  nationalities  of 
the    North.     Booker    T.    Washington    says:' 

237 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

"The  prohibition  movement  is  based  upon  a 
deep  seated  desire  to  get  rid  of  whisky  in  the 
interests  of  both  races  because  of  its  hurtful 
economic  results.  The  prohibition  sentiment 
is  as  strong  in  counties  where  there  are  prac- 
tically no  colored  people  as  in  the  Black  Belt 
counties."  "In  Birmingham  the  Negroes 
formed  an  organization  and  cast  nearly  all  the 
registered  colored  vote  for  prohibition."* 

Race  hatred  and  with  it  the  lawless  law  of 
lynch  is  spreading  North  along  with  the  im- 
migration of  the  "floating  Negro"  into  North- 
ern cities,  where  the  conditions  for  outbreak 
are  already  too  fertile.  Typical  Northern  race 
riots  were  those  of  the  two  Springfields,  Ohio 
in  1904,  and  Illinois  in  1908.  In  the  former^ 
there  had  been  a  long  period  of  lax  enforce- 
ment of  law,  a  murder  every  sixteen  days  in 
the  county  and  few  executions ;  there  was  little 
or  no  enforcement  against  vice  and  the  saloon 
in  the  city ;  the  authorities  catered  to  these 
elements;  the  Negroes  had  1,500  votes  that 
were  regularly  bought  and  sold  by  the  parties 
alternately  as  needed.  There  were  145  saloons 
in  Springfield,  one  to  every  283  of  the  popula- 
tion, nine  of  them  kept  by  Negroes.  A  spe- 
cially vile  colored  levee  was  run  by  a  political 
boss  and  repeated  efforts  to  have  it  cleared 
up  were  thwarted  by  the  party  leaders  who 
needed  the  60  or  70  votes  that  this  petty  plut- 
ocrat handed  them  in  return  for  protection. 
The  soil  for  riot  was  rich  and  deep.  A 
drunken  Negro  shot  a  policeman.  A  mob  of 
men  and  boys,  mostly  between  the  ages  of  16 
and  20,  recruited  from  the  back  rooms  of  the 
saloons,  battered   down  the   strongest  jail   in 

238 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES 

Ohio.  Moral  rot  had  seized  the  officers  of 
the  law,  the  sheriff,  deputies,  mayor,  police 
and  the  militia  company  stationed  there.  They 
had  not  been  accustomed  to  enforce  law ;  their 
habit  had  been  to  excuse,  to  make  exceptions, 
to  let  off  easily  in  dealing  with  the  law-break- 
ing liquor  element  and  others  who  paid  for 
or  demanded  exemptions  from  the  operation 
of  law.  The  Springfield,  111.,  riot  was  a  repe- 
tition of  the  same  fundamental  elements. 

The  South  is  getting  rid  of  the  saloon  large- 
ly to  reduce  the  opportunities  for  race  fric- 
tion. Lynchings  there  have  been  decreasing 
in  number  the  past  few  years.  Race  disturb- 
ances in  the  North,  on  the  other  hand,  are  just 
beginning,  and  with  a  fury,  when  they  do  oc- 
cur, no  less  than  that  shown  by  the  most 
lynch-hardened  sections  of  Mississippi  or  Geor- 
gia. It  would  be  wise  for  the  Northern  states 
to  get  ready  for  the  coming  influx  of  the  lower 
classes  of  Negroes  into  their  cities  by  remov- 
ing the  saloon  from  which  the  colored  race 
Vvill  suffer  more  than  it  has  ever  done  in  the 
rural  communities  of  the  South.  Ten  million 
blacks  and  eighty  million  whites  can  live  to- 
gether and  work  out  the  solution  of  their  dif- 
ferences, if  sober.  But  the  inferior  race  can- 
not remain  peaceable  and  hope  to  advance  at 
the  same  time,  when  they  come  to  have  numeri- 
cal strength,  if  the  crime-suggesting  and  pas- 
sion-stimulating saloon  is  left  open  to  them 
as  freely  as  to  other  nationalities  and  races. 

The  Saloon  in  Political  and  Social  Assimila- 
tion.— In  its  relation  to  the  million  immigrants 
who  each  year  come  to  America  and  settle  in 
the  large  cities  and  mining  camps,  the  raw, 

239 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

undigested,  un-Americanized  mass  that  col- 
onize in  city  communities,  the  saloon  problem 
of  the  North  has  certain  important  features 
not  unlike  those  of  the  South. 

Here  it  is  that  the  organized  American 
brewing  industry,  following  its  fixed  policy  of 
saturating  to  the  limit  the  beer-drinking  com- 
munities, establishes  a  new  saloon,  with  a  com- 
patriot as  keeper,  for  each  new  tribe,  nation- 
ality or  race  that  arrives,  and,  centering  their 
first  acquaintance  with  this  land  of  liberty  on 
the  saloon,  with  its  free  lunch,  games,  free- 
for-all-for-a-nickel  fellowship,  its  law  defiance 
and  encouragement  of  crime,  makes  them  even 
more  foreign  in  spirit  than  before  they  left 
their  homes  in  Europe. 

From  the  saloon  the  would-be  democratic 
citizen  learns  his  first  ideas  of  self-government 
and  discovers  that  the  new  privilege  of  fran- 
chise is  a  commodity  for  financial  gain.  Beer 
serves  both  as  the  means  and  the  motive  by 
which  the  ignorant  are  exploited  for  political 
purposes,  the  purchaseable  vote  created  and 
applied  to  the  misgovernment  of  our  great 
cities.  The  South  has  its  race  problem ;  the 
North  its  problem  of  many  races. 

To-day  immigration  as  a  whole  is  ten  times 
as  illiterate  as  it  was  a  generation  or  two  ago. 
We  now  have  "vortex  rings  of  nationality," 
as  Hall  calls  them,i — "little  Italys,  little  Rus- 
sias,  little  Syrias  and  so  on,"  "closed  to  the 
outside  medium  in  which  they  live,  though 
possibly  shifting  enmasse  from  one  place  to 
another  as  the  currents  of  economic  demand 
bear  them."  It  has  been  found  that  the  Amer- 
ican born  children  of  foreign  parents  "furnish 

240 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

three  times  as  many  criminals  as  those  of 
native  birth  and  parentage,  and  more  than 
twice  as  many  as  the  foreign-born.  The  chil- 
dren of  immigrants  are,  therefore,  twice  as 
dangerous  and  troublesome  as  the  immigrants 
themselves."^ 

Just  how  much  of  the  increased  crime  is  due 
to  the  heavier  use  of  drink,  which  accompanies 
the  larger  wages  here  received,  how  much  is 
due  to  the  mis-education  of  the  foreigner  by 
the  saloon  and  the  conditions  into  which  he  is 
thrown,  and  what  share  is  chargeable  to  the 
lower  quality  of  the  average  ship-load  of  im- 
migrants of  the  present  day  and  to  other  con- 
ditions, cannot  be  determined.  But  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  saloon  plays  an  unfor- 
tunate part  toward  these  new  peoples  in  the 
following  ways : 

1.  There  is  a  thoroughly  organized  and  sys- 
tematic exploitation  of  the  ignorant,  non-Eng- 
lish speaking  foreign  vote  in  Northern  cities. 
The  saloon  is  invariably  a  part  of  the  political 
machine.  The  boss  is  one  of  their  own  race, 
accountable  to  the  more  powerful  ward  boss 
for  the  votes  of  his  fellow-countrymen. 

The  saloon  is  the  means  by  which  the  "supe- 
rior" race  purchases  the  political  power  of  the 
"inferior."  What  can  "citizenship"  and  "the 
sacred  right  of  the  ballot"  mean  to  such 
voters  ? 

This  is  disfranchisement  by  means  of  money 
and  beer.  Such  a  voter  is  no  more  expressing 
his  opinions  than  is  the  excluded  Negro  of  the 
South.  Whether  it  is  more  dishonorable  to 
disfranchise  by  means  of  the  saloon  than  by 
law  may  depend  upon  whether  one  is  looking 
241 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  TPIE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

from  a  Northern  or  a  Southern  view  point. 

2.  The  liquor  traffic,  through  national  or 
race  spirit  stirred  up  in  support  of  old  drink- 
ing customs,  presents  organized  opposition  to 
certain  long-existing  American  institutions. 

The  saloon  persists  in  defying  or  evading 
whenever  possible,  every  law  passed  toward 
its  restriction.  It  is  the  foreign-born  citizen 
that  is  loudest  in  his  misinterpretation  of  civic 
liberty  as  personal  liberty, — and  usually  the  one 
most  recently  from  the  countries  where  little 
or  no  liberty  is  found.  It  is  the  European  that 
insists  on  the  Sunday  saloon  and  in  the  break- 
ing down  of  the  American  ideals  regarding 
that  day — one  of  the  earliest  and  most  sacred 
of  American  ideals.  The  personal  liberty 
leagues  in  various  states  and  cities  are  little 
better  than  organized  movements  for  the  de- 
fiance of  restrictive  laws  placed  on  the  liquor 
trade.  In  Chicago  the  United  Societies,  claim- 
ing 120,000  members,  endeavoring  to  demon- 
strate their  power  in  opposition  to  the  law- 
obeying  elements,  conducted  a  gigantic  Sun- 
day parade  and  assembled  in  the  Armory  for 
speeches  in  German,  Italian,  Polish  and  Bohe- 
mian, demanding  the  sale  of  liquors  on  Sun- 
day. They  further  explicitly  condemned  the 
action  of  the  States  Attorney  for  endeavoring 
to  enforce  law  and  commended  the  Mayor  for 
his  persistent  refusal  to  do  so.^ 

This  systematic  defiance  of  law,  when  it 
suits  convenience,  led  so  largely  by  foreign- 
born  American  citizens,  when  compared  with 
the  acts  of  the  low-born  colored  men  of  the 
South  and  the  quick  vengence  of  the  mob  that 

242 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES 

lynches  him — both  the  acts  of  impulse — is  little 
less  than  treason. 

3.  The  saloon  assists  in  keeping  alive  old- 
world  customs  and  drinking  habits  unsuitable 
to  the  more  nervous,  rushing  life  and  climate 
of  this  country.  The  moderate  drinking  of 
continental  Europe  seems  not  to  be  possible 
here  for  these  reasons  and  because  of  the  freer 
spirit  which  develops  the  treating  habit  and 
on  account  of  the  greater  attractiveness  of  the 
saloon. 

It  is  when  beer  flows  freely,  in  the  mining 
towns  of  Pennsylvania,  that  brawls  and  fights, 
based  on  racial  antagonisms,  are  most  fre- 
quent. Inherited  religious  and  racial  feuds, 
imported  from  Eastern  Europe,  break  out 
afresh.  The  Ruthenians  are  having  a  feast. 
It  strikes  a  group  of  Polish  lads  that  this  will 
be  a  good  time  to  look  in  on  them  and  have 
some  fun.  When  sober  these  people  are  com- 
monly very  peaceable ;  but  when  maddened  by 
drink  anything  serves  as  a  weapon,  chairs, 
lamps  and  knives.  There  are  few  inebriates, 
as  compared  with  the  heavy  drinkers  among 
the  Irish,  English  or  even  Americans.  But 
the  quarrels  and  rows  of  the  average  Slav 
saloon  are  little  different  from  those  of  the 
Negro  saloon,  and  the  spirit  back  of  them  is 
practically  the  same. 

"The  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  are  fond  of 
drink  and  spend  their  money  freely  on  it. 
Some  spend  more  money  on  beer  than  they 
do  on  food.  The  evidences  of  drink  in  the 
homes  are  apparent  on  all  sides,  and  not  only 
do  national  customs  and  national  tastes  and 


248 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

usages  make  for  drunkenness,  but  the  unde- 
niable fact  that  the  liquor  interests  are  the  only 
American  interests  which  effectively  reach  the 
great  mass  of  the  non-English  speaking  immi- 
grants."* 

"A  population  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
rough  and  unrestrained  male  laborers,  plied 
with  all  possible  energy  and  ingenuity  with 
alcoholic  liquor,  can  be  counted  on,  with  the 
certainty  of  a  chemical  experiment,  for  one 
reaction — violent  and  fatal  crime.  There 
would  be  crime  of  this  kind  from  such  a  popu- 
lation under  any  circumstances.  But  the 
facilities  of  Chicago  double  and  treble  it.  The 
European  peasant,  suddenly  freed  from  the 
restraints  of  authority  and  of  rigid  police  au- 
thority, and  the  vicious  Negro  from  the  coun- 
tryside of  the  South — especially  the  latter — 
furnish  an  alarming  volume  of  savage  crime, 
first  confined  to  their  own  races,  and  later,  as 
they  appreciate  the  lack  of  adequate  protection, 
extended  to  society  at  large.  None  of  these 
folk,  perhaps,  have  progressed  far  along  the 
way  of  civilization ;  but  under  the  exploita- 
tion in  Chicago  they  slip  back  into  a  form  of 
city  savagery  compared  to  which  their  prev- 
ious history  shows  a  peaceful  and  well-ordered 
existence.  Their  children  are  as  quickly  and 
surely  rotted  as  themselves  by  the  influence 
of  the  saloon  upon  the  neighborhood  of  their 
homes."" 

America's  Problem  of  Races  — In  nineteen 
Northern  states,  the  most  populous  in  the 
union,  the  states  that  control  national  legis- 
lation and  elect  the  presidents,  the  states  that 
contain   the   greatest  number  of   saloons   and 

244 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES 

that  are  the  home  of  the  Hquor  power  in  poli- 
tics, there  are  now  living  more  foreigners  than 
A.mericans.  That  is,  there  are  more  people  in 
these  states  who  themselves  were  born  on  for- 
eign shores  or  whose  parents  were  immi- 
grants than  there  are  natives  whose  parents 
were  also  Americans.  In  the  large  cities  the 
ratio  is  from  two-thirds  to  three-fourths. 

At  the  present  time  the  immigrants  of  a 
single  year  would  make  an  Italian  city  the 
size  of  Minneapolis ;  the  Austro-Hungarian 
peoples,  Bohemians,  Jews,  Magyars  and  Slavs, 
would  fill  another  Detroit ;  the  Poles,  Jews  and 
others  from  Russia  would  re-people  Provi- 
dence.^ From  the  time  of  the  Revolution  to 
1905,  23,000,000  immigrants  arrived.^  Those 
who  have  come  to  this  country  since  1835  con- 
stitute more  than  one-half  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation.'^ 

Until  the  heavy  change  in  the  class  of  immi- 
gration took  place  twenty-five  or  thirty  years 
ago,  the  lower  grades  taking  the  place  of  the 
more  industrious  and  skilled,  and  the  South 
and  Eastern  Europeans  substituting  for  the 
energetic,  liberty-seeking  classes  of  the  North, 
and  until  the  excessive  massing  of  the  ignor- 
ant in  colonies  in  cities  began,  assimilation 
went  on  in  a  healthful  manner.  Now  it  is 
retarded  by  the  hordes  annually  arriving,  by 
the  race  antipathies  that  arise  on  account  of 
the  inferiority  of  the  later  arrivals,  and  by  the 
low  moral  conditions  into  which  these  rural 
peasants  are  thrust  in  our  cities  and  mining 
camps.  To  retain  permanently  foreign  cus- 
toms, to  refuse  to  assimilate,  to  herd  "in  vor- 
tex rings,"  or  to  be  driven  by  race  prejudice 

245 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

to  seclude  themselves  from  contact  with  Amer- 
ican ideals,  is  a  crime  against  the  future  wel- 
fare of  the  nation  for  which  industrial  and 
moral  conditions  here  are  chiefly  responsible. 
No  race  has  a  right  to  remain  permanently 
foreign,  and  it  is  inviting  self-destruction  for 
Americans  to  permit  the  institutions  that  offer 
to  these  new  would-be  citizens  the  very  worst 
of  our  civilization  as  a  foundation  for  their 
new  type  of  personal  liberty.  On  the  other 
hand,  however  ethical  standards  may  vary,  no 
foreign-born  citizen  has  a  right  to  demand 
that  the  community  shall  continue  to  support 
a  saloon  to  satisfy  his  appetite  when  it  is  en- 
dangering the  welfare  of  societv  common  to 
both. 

The  saloon  is  as  much  American  as  it  is 
foreign.  It  came  over  with  the  colonists.  But 
the  descendants  of  the  colonists,  as  well  as 
these  of  the  additions  during  the  first  fifty 
years  of  our  national  history,  are  everywhere 
becoming  m.ore  and  more  temperate  and  where 
the  American  blood  flows  purest  the  saloof 
has  been  banished  from  30,000,000  or  more 
people.  In  the  North  the  mass  of  immigrants 
have  adapted  their  ready  drinking  customs, 
heretofore  usually  moderate,  to  our  vicious, 
legalized,  political  saloon  system  that  knows 
no  moderation,  respect  for  minors,  or  obe- 
dience to  law.    Two  conditions  result: 

1.  It  has  made  their  heretofore  moderate 
drinking  excessive,  lowering  the  "foreigner" 
in  the  estimation  of  the  older  "American,"  and 
laid  the  foundation  for  a  doubling  of  crime  in 
the  next  generation. 

2.  The  saloon  power  and  demand  for  liquor 

246 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES. 

has  been  re-enforced.  Without  this  inflow 
temperance  instruction  in  the  schools,  temper- 
ance societies,  the  influence  of  the  church  and 
restrictive  legislation  were  rapidly  getting  the 
upper  hand. 

In  the  cities  have  been  massed  the  rural- 
bred,  light  wine  drinking  Italian,  or  moderate 
beer  using  Hungarian,  German,  or  Slav  into 
crovv'ded  three-saloons-to-the-crossing  and  five- 
in-the-block  districts.  Here  they  have  been 
mercilessly  saturated  with  beer,  taught  saloon 
politics  and  citizenship  and  for  the  best  of 
their  European  morality,  their  moderation  and 
religious  faithfulness,  has  been  substituted  a 
degenerate  type  of  "personal  liberty." 

Various  races  and  nationalities  are  living 
together  in  America — 10,000,000  Negroes,  a 
few  remaining  Indians,  some  Chinese  and  Jap- 
anese on  the  Pacific  Coast,  40,000.000  descend- 
ants of  European  nationalities  that  have 
come  in  during  the  past  100  years,  and  1,000,- 
000  of  a  mucb  lower,  less  intelligent  average 
that  a'T  arriving  each  year.  In  all  probability 
they  will  have  to  continue  to  live  together. 
Therefore,  remove  the  conditions  that  cause 
friction  or  enable  one  class  to  use  another  as 
a  political  tool.  The  liquor  trade  is  one  of 
these ;  its  destruction  is  a  part  of  the  Ameri- 
canizing program.  If  it  remains  Americans 
will  be  foreignized  instead  of  foreigners  Amer- 
icanized. 

In  the  South  the  truest  of  Americans  have 
been  willing  to  deny  themselves  even  the  mod- 
erate use  of  intoxicants  for  the  benefit  of  the 
colored  race  and  the  lower  whites.  "The  abo- 
lition  of   the  bar-room   is   a   blessing   to   the 

247 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

Negro  second  only  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Two-thirds  of  the  mobs,  lynchings,  and  burn- 
ings at  the  stake  are  the  result  of  bad  whisky 
drunk  by  bad  black  men  and  bad  white  men."* 
In  two  months'  time,  as  Booker  T.  Washing- 
ton says,  "Putting  it  in  round  numbers,  ac- 
cording to  the  reports  of  the  public  magis- 
trates, prohibition  has  reduced  the  amount  of 
crime  in  Birmingham,  Ala.,  one-third,  and  in 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  one-half  since  January  1,  when 
the  law  went  into  effect."^ 

Among  the  foreign-born  of  the  wiiite  races 
are  many  who  would  banish  the  saloon  as 
quickly  as  the  most  radical  temperance  people 
of  earlier  native  descent.  Nationale  Prosperi- 
tat,  a  German-American  magazine,  resent- 
fully denies  that  "the  beer  barrel  is  the  Ger- 
man Kaiser  in  America"  and  that  personal  lib- 
erty to  drink  beer  is  the  ideal  of  Germans  in 
America.  In  the  Birmingham,  Ala.,  prohibi- 
tion election  the  city  was  carried  largely  by  the 
vote  of  the  mills  and  factories.  And  it  was 
not  a  typical  Southern  city ;  its  population  was 
largely  born  and  recruited  from  the  foreign 
elements  of  our  own  American  population. 
Where  the  saloon  interests  have  not  enlisted 
the  active  allegiance  of  the  foreign-born  peo- 
ples on  their  behalf,  and  do  not  hold  them  in 
political  affiliation,  whether  drinkers  or  non- 
drinkers,  they  gradually  become  as  willing  to 
banish  the  saloon  as  any  other  class  of  our 
citizenship.  They  are  not  unwilling  to  deprive 
themselves  of  the  privilege  of  drink  for  the 
welfare  of  the  new  America  of  which  they  are 
becoming  loyal  citizens. 

248 


THE    CONFLICT    OF    RACES 

References  and  Authorities, 

The  Negro  and  Drink. 

Du  Bois,  "The  Philadelphia  Negro,"  277-286. 

Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem," 
160-185. 

Committee  of  Fiftv,  Summarj^  of  "The  Liquor 
Problem,"   115-116. 

Waring,  "Some  Causes  of  Criminality  Among  Col- 
ored People,"  Charities,  15,  45. 

Graves,  "Georgia  Pioneers  the  Prohibition  Cru- 
sade,"  Cosmopolitan,  45,  83. 

Washington,  "Prohibition  and  the  Negro,"  Out- 
look, 88,  587;  "A  Town  Owned  by  Negroes," 
World's  Work,  14,  9125. 

Iglehart,  "The  Nations  Anti-Drink  Crusade,"  Re- 
view of  Reviews,  Zl ,  468. 

^Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem,"  180. 

=Same,  169. 

^Horsley  and  Sturge,  "Alcohol  and  the  Human 
Body,"  114. 

*From  an  address  at  Baltimore  on  "The  Race 
Problem  and  the  Liquor  Traffic,"  American  Is- 
sue. May  9,  1908. 

As  a  Factor  in  Race  Conflicts. 

Graves,  "The  Tragedy  at  Atlanta,"  World  To-day, 
11,  1170. 

Corrigan,  "The  Prohibition  Wave  in  the  South," 
Review  of  Reviews,  September,  1907. 

Baker,  "What  is  Lynching?"  McClures.  In  the 
South,  Vol.  24,  299.  In  the  North,  Vol.  24, 
422. 

Washington,  "Drink  and  the  Negro,"  Outlook, 
March   14,   1908. 

Waring,  "Some  Causes  of  Criminality  Among  Col- 
ored People,"  Charities,  15,  45. 

Graves,  "Georgia  Pioneers  the  Prohibition  Cru- 
sade," Cosmopolitan,  45,  83. 

nVorld  To-day,  11,  1170. 

^Corrigan,   "Prohibition   Wave   in   the   South,"   Re- 
view of  Reviews,  September,  1907. 
249 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

'Prohibition  and  the  Negro,  Outlook,  88,  587. 

^Same,  589. 

''Baker,  "What  is  Lynching?"  24.  422. 

The  Saloon  in  Political  and  Social  Assimilation. 

Hall,  "Immigration,"  172-188. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  81-87. 

Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClures,  April, 
1907. 

Koren,  "Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem," 
135-147. 

Committee  of  Fifty,  Summary  of  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem, 114-125. 

See  Chapter  11. 

'Hall,  "Immigration,"  177. 

'Same,  149. 

'See  Chicago  daily  papers,  February  10,  1908. 

^Roberts,  "The  New  Pittsburg,"  in  The  Pittsburg 
Survey,  Charities,  January  2,  1909. 

''Turner,  "The  City  of  Chicago,"  McClures,  April, 
1907. 
America's  Problem  of  Races. 

Barker,  "The  Saloon  Problem  and  Social  Reform," 
49-50. 

Hall,  "Immigration,"  183-188. 

Grose,  "Aliens  or  Americans?"  233-250. 

Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  81-87. 

'Grose,  "Aliens  or  Americans?"  21-22. 

^Hall,  "Immigration,"  8. 

'Same,  103. 

^Review  of  Reviews,  37,  474. 

^Washington,   "Prohibition   and  the   Negro,"   Out- 
look, 88,  587. 


250 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS    FOR   PROHIBITION. 

The    Relation    of     Sources    to    Solution. — 

The  most  vital  test  that  can  be  applied  to  a 
method  suggested  for  settling  a  public  prob- 
lem is  the  way  in  which  it  affects  the  funda- 
mental sources  of  that  problem.  To  deal  with 
the  beginnings  of  the  drink  habit  is  to  guar- 
antee against  intemperance ;  to  apply  the  rem- 
edy to  the  sources  of  the  trade  is  to  stop,  be- 
fore it  begins,  the  social  and  political  corrup- 
tion chargeable  to  the  saloon. 

The  many  methods  proposed  may  be  classi- 
fied into  four  groups,  corresponding  in  a 
rough  way  to  the  periods  of  advance  through 
which  reform  movements  usually  go :  the  first, 
"moral  suasion,"  belongs  to  the  period  of  ex- 
clusive personal  effort ;  the  second,  the  provid- 
ing of  counter  attractions  and  substitutes,  is 
possible  only  when  reform  has  reached  the 
stage  of  social  co-operation  in  organized  soci- 
eties, churches,  and  other  forms  of  united 
labor ;  the  third  and  fourth,  restriction  or  con- 
trol, and  legal  overthrow,  belong  to  the  period 
of  governmental  action  and  organized  social 
force,  supplementing  other  forms  of  effort. 

The  four  chief  sources  of  the  ugly,  compli- 
cated liquor  problem  as  it  is  found  in  America 

261 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

are  first,  the  desire  for  stimulants  and  the  ap- 
petite for  intoxicating  liquors ;  second,  the  op- 
portunity to  make  money  by  increasing  and 
supplying  this  demand ;  third,  social  custom, 
and  fourth,  government  sanction.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  how  far  the  various  reform 
movements  and  methods  so  far  tried  have 
really  touched  the  vital  sources  of  this  social 
welfare  disease. 

1.  The  desire  for  stimulants,  when  gratified 
repeatedly  by  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks,  tends 
to  become  more  and  more  exacting  in  its  de- 
mands until  it  is  the  most  relentless  of  all  the 
causes  of  intemperance  and  the  resulting  social 
consequences.  The  degree  to  which  a  method 
of  solvation  gets  at  this  source  is  a  crucial  test 
of  its  practical  value. 

Under  moral  suasion  the  aim  is  to  win  the 
drinking  man  away  from  his  cups  and  to  pre- 
vent the  uninitiated  from  learning  the  narcot- 
izing effects  of  intoxication,  and  from  form- 
ing the  drink  habit.  The  force  applied  is  ap- 
peal to  the  will,  to  honor,  home  and  commun- 
ity responsibilities,  dangers  resulting  from 
drink,  etc.  The  method  creates  a  strong  moral 
pre-disposition  against  drink.  But  beyond  this 
psychological  force  it  leaves  the  appetite  prac- 
tically unbroken,  if  previously  formed,  and 
does  not  affect  the  outward  inducements  to 
drink.  It  is  immensely  practical  and  will  al- 
ways continue  to  be  the  leading  method  to  se- 
cure personal  temperance. 

Substitution   fails  to  take  into  account  the 

fact  that  most  men  go  to  the  saloon  for  the 

drinks  and,  while  its  influence  is  directly  aimed 

at  the  social  source,  it  leaves  this  one  practic- 

262 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR  PROHIBITION 

ally  untouched.  It  offers,  however,  the  latent 
influence  of  example  and  gives  opportunity  to 
men  who  want  to  break  away  from  the  alcohol 
habit  to  do  so. 

Both  the  Gothenburg  and  the  dispensary  sys- 
tems, in  their  claim  to  offer  pure  liquors,  ac- 
centuate the  inherent  evils  of  intoxication, 
overlooking  the  fact  that  alcohol  is  the  worst 
poison  that  liquors  contain  and  that  it  is  essen- 
tial to  them  all. 

License,  high  or  low,  as  well  as  regulative 
measures  of  all  kinds,  assumes  that  drinking 
is  to  continue ;  that  the  desire  for  stimulants 
must  be  gratified,  while  aiming  to  have  it  done 
under  more  respectable  conditions  and  in  a 
lawful  way.  They  encourage,  rather  than  di- 
minish the  formation  of  the  liquor  habit  and 
provide  all  the  means  necessary  for  its  gratifi- 
cation. 

Prohibition  methods  are  aimed  directly  at 
this  source.  By  cutting  off  the  supply  they 
prevent  the  creating  of  the  habit  in  the  young 
and,  to  a  large  extent,  its  gratification  by  those 
already  under  its  influence. 

2.  The  economic  source.  The  modern  liquor 
trade  is  not  merely  the  business  machinery  for 
furnishing  the  economic  supply  in  response  to 
a  normal  demand  for  alcoholics.  It  is  an  or- 
ganized business  pushed  by  the  highest  ingen- 
uity known  to  the  new  advertising  profession. 
It  opens  new  fields  and  creates  new  constitu- 
encies in  residence  neighborhoods  in  our  cities, 
crowds  the  industrial  sections  with  saloons  and 
creates  a  new  demand  in  foreign  countries 
where  the  use  of  intoxicants  has  been  little 
known. 

253 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

Moral  suasion  work  has  succeeded  in  get- 
ting a  few  retail  dealers  to  quit  the  business 
for  a  short  time.  Otherwise  it  is  practically 
useless  in  dealing  with  this  source.  The  pro- 
viding of  substitutes  for  the  saloon  is  futile 
since  the  trade,  with  vast  financial  resources 
behind  it,  can  out-attract  any  sort  of  counter- 
attraction  that  meager  philanthropic  efifort, 
however  high  its  motive,  may  be  able  to  offer. 
Only  when  supplemented  by  legislation  and 
enforcement  can  substitution  do  its  normal  and 
necessary  work  as  a  temperance  measure. 

The  prime  purpose  of  the  Gothenburg  sys- 
tem and  of  variations  modeled  after  it,  is  the 
removal  of  the  incentive  of  private  profits. 
It  is  applied,  however,  only  to  the  retail  sale 
and  so  leaves  the  profit  in  manufacture  un- 
touched. To  some  extent  it  succeeds,  but  it 
fails  to  take  into  account  the  other  sources 
of  the  liquor  evil  and  so  limits  its  possibilities 
of  success.  The  great  difficulty  is  the  disposal 
of  the  earnings  of  the  business  so  that  they  will 
not  serve  as  a  bribe  upon  the  public  conscience 
and  so  make  it  to  the  interests  of  the  managers 
to  push  the  sales  from  the  same  motive  as 
does  the  ordinary  saloonkeeper. 

The  dispensary  is  a  method  for  the  trans- 
fer of  the  element  of  profit  from  private  in- 
dividuals to  the  city  or  county  or  state.  It 
makes  the  public  the  liquor  seller,  gives  it 
an  absolute  monopoly  of  the  business,  to- 
gether with  the  larger  profits  which  this  im- 
plies, and  lets  the  public  keep  all  the  profits. 
This  money,  apparently  relieving  the  taxpayer, 
intrenches  the  business  behind  the  short- 
sighted cupidity  of  tax-paying  citizens.    From 

264 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR   PROHIBITION 

the  economic  point  of  view  it  is  not  a  temper- 
ance measure  at  all,  merely  a  means  for  rais- 
ing public  revenue. 

License,  especially  hig-h  license,  centralizes 
the  trade  into  the  hands  of  fewer  retail 
dealers,  discriminates  against  the  poorer  sa- 
loonkeeper, not  on  a  temperance  basis,  but  on 
a  financial  basis,  and  thus  acts  as  a  monopo- 
listic measure.  On  the  whole,  it  increases 
rather  than  reduces  the  economic  incentives 
in  the  business. 

All  forms  of  prohibition,  in  principle,  go 
straight  to  the  bottom  of  this  source.  It  is 
here  that  they  deal  their  heaviest  blows. 
State  prohibition  is  more  decisive  than  local 
because  it  gets  at  the  manufacturer  as  well 
as  the  seller.  The  option  feature  in  some 
forms  of  local  prohibition  is  not  so  strong  as 
it  might  be  in  that  it  leaves  hope  alive  to  the 
outlawed  saloonist  that  within  a  year  or  two 
there  will  be  a  reversal  of  the  vote.  It  thus 
encourages  him  to  carry  on  an  illegal  trade  in 
the  meantime. 

3.  The  sociability  source  of  the  liquor  evil, 
complicating  and  aggravating  the  whole  great 
problem,  has  sometimes  been  overlooked  by 
practical  temperance  and  prohibition  workers. 
The  habit  of  seeking  amusement  and  recrea- 
tion in  the  saloon  is  fixed  in  the  social  cus- 
toms of  large  classes  of  people.  This  ground 
the  trade  has  seized  and  proceeds  to  satisfy, 
not  with,  but  in  spite  of,  alcohol  and  intoxica- 
tion. 

The  providing  of  healthful  counter  attrac- 
tions of  a  social  nature,  free  from  the  sale 
of  liquors,  is  a  direct  aim  at  this  source  of 

266 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

intemperance.  It  is,  in  principle,  an  effort  to 
accompany  the  negative  and  destructive  meth- 
ods of  reform  by  constructive  ones.  It  is  an 
exceedingly  wise  method,  but  inefficient  when 
alone  since  it  takes  into  account  but  one  of  the 
four  sources. 

The  Gothenburg  system  tries  to  take  this 
source  into  account  by  using  a  part  of  the 
profits  of  the  bar  trade  to  provide  reading 
rooms,  lunches  and  resting  rooms  as  well  as 
other  semi-philanthropic  social  centers.  But 
it  also  provides  for  the  sale  of  alcohol,  either 
in  the  same  room  or  somewhere  near,  and  so 
counteracts  much  of  its  good  work. 

The  license  and  restrictive  measures  have 
nothing  to  do  with  this  source  except  to  add 
to  its  intensity  by  requiring  the  liquor  dealer 
to  resort  to  every  means  that  he  can  devise  in 
order  to  increase  his  trade  so  he  may  pay  his 
higher  fees.  Prohibition  regards  it  negatively ; 
that  with  the  money  spent  in  the  saloon  any 
man  can  supply  himself,  and  his  family  as  well, 
with  all  the  recreation  procurable  at  the  saloon 
and  with  home  improvements  besides.  In  or- 
der to  get  at  this  source  completely  and  satis- 
factorily neither  substitution  nor  prohibition 
alone  is  adequate.  The  two  must  be  combined 
and  work  co-ordinately.  Only  under  a  pro- 
hibition policy  can  counter  attractions  reach 
the  people  as  they  should ;  only  with  proper 
counter  attractions  can  prohibition  be  most  suc- 
cessful in  our  large  cities ;  only  after  the  re- 
moval of  the  open  temptation  to  spend  their 
money  for  the  abnormal  excitements  of  the  sa- 
loon will  most  of  those  who  are  accustomed  to 
find  their  recreation  and  fellowship  there,  be 
256 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR   PROHIBITION 

able  to  provide  good  recreation  and  amuse- 
ments of  their  own. 

4.  The  political  source.  This  very  impor- 
tant source  of  the  liquor  problem  is,  unfortu- 
nately, often  neglected  by  students  of  public 
questions.  They  fail  to  note  that  intemper- 
ance is  but  a  part  of  the  whole  problem  and 
that  its  public  social  and  political  aspects  are, 
if  possible,  the  most  corrupting  of  all.  Gov- 
ernmental sanction  is  the  greatest  source  of  the 
liquor  power  in  business  and  politics ;  indi- 
rectly, also,  it  adds  to  the  force  of  private 
greed  and  social  custom  in  producing  intem- 
perance. It  is  the  most  inexcusable  of  all  the 
sources  of  the  problem  and  its  train  of  evil 
consequences. 

The  substitution  and  moral  suasion  methods 
cannot  touch  the  political  power  of  the  liquor 
traffic.  The  Gothenburg  system,  as  it  exists 
in  Norway,  does  not  have  such  conditions  to 
meet,  but  if  it  should  be  adopted  in  this  coun- 
try, it  would  merely  shift  the  power  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  have  the  monopoly  of  the 
sale  for  which  it  provides.  The  South  Caro- 
lina dispensary  was  one  of  the  finest  examples 
of  corrupt  political  machinery  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  United  States.  It  served  as 
the  one  great  means  of  keeping  the  liquor 
business  from  being  completely  banished  from 
that  state. 

The  license  policy,  whether  high  or  low, 
whether  by  city,  state  or  as  United  States 
internal  revenue,  is  the  very  backbone  of  the 
political  power  of  the  saloon  and  the  liquor 
trade.  The  prohibition  methods  are  the  only 
ones  which  take  direct  aim  at  it.  Local  pro- 
257 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

hibition  hits  chiefly  at  the  saloons  of  a  small 
localit}-  without  reference  to  the  general  gov- 
ernmental policy.  It  leaves  the  larger  political 
power  of  the  traffic  unbroken.  In  its  efforts 
it  has  to  fight  not  only  the  saloons  of  a  town 
or  county,  but  the  stronger  organizations  be- 
hind them  as  well.  The  state  method,  going 
a  step  further,  weakens  the  power  to  the  state 
boundaries,  but  has  to  fight  the  national  unions 
of  the  trade,  the  dealers  in  nearby  license  states 
and  the  revenue  and  interstate  commerce  pol- 
icies of  the  Federal  government  in  order  to 
maintain  satisfactory  enforcement  within  its 
own  territory. 

The  Social  Basis;  Summary. — It  is  their 
effects  upon  the  community  as  a  whole,  upon 
the  health,  happiness  and  morality  of  large 
masses  of  people,  and  upon  the  permanency 
of  the  nation,  that  condemn  the  drink  habit  and 
traffic.  It  is  not  so  much  that  harm  comes  to 
the  individual  user  as  that  others  must  bear  so 
large  a  burden  of  undeserved  consequences, 
that  calls  for  action  on  the  part  of  organized 
society. 

It  may  not  be  inherently  wrong  to  drink  a 
glass  of  liquor  or  to  manufacture  in  response 
to  a  pre-existing  call  for  intoxicants,  for  oc- 
casional use.  But  the  consequences  of  the 
trade,  the  almost  impossibility  of  preserving 
such  moderation  that  no  evil  will  result,  and 
the  active  creation  of  a  new  demand  produce 
a  deep-seated  wrong  that  strikes  at  the  foun- 
dations of  community  and  national  life.  All 
trade  is  social  in  character  and  directly  subject 
to  social  welfare  or  it  has  no  reason  for  exis- 
tence.    The  liquor  traffic,  judged  by  its  con- 

268 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS   FOR   PROHIBITION 

sequences  as  a  whole,  does  not  do  this ;  it  has 
no  adequate  reason  for  seeking  the  approval 
of  society  and  the  protecting  legislation  of  gov- 
ernment. It  is  an  absurdity  and  a  contradic- 
tion of  the  purposes  of  government  that  an 
institution  which  is  a  danger  to  public  welfare 
should  receive  the  sanction  of  law — the  only 
method  by  which  the  whole  of  society  speaks 
authoritatively. 

To  provide  for  the  public  safety,  health  and 
morals,  is  the  very  first  duty  of  the  police 
powers  of  the  government.  This  is  the  author- 
ity conferred  on  government  by  the  people 
themselves  for  the  defense  of  what  the  sociolo- 
gists call  the  ends  of  social  welfare,  the  public 
health,  wealth,  knowledge,  sociability,  etc. 
With  all  of  these  the  liquor  traffic  conflicts 
and  is  thus  marked  as  an  anti-social  institution 
to  be  exterminated : 

1.  The  general  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  is  a 
serious  danger  to  public  health,  the  necessary 
physical  basis  for  all  individual,  as  well  as 
social,  welfare.  Mankind  has  used  stimulants 
for  thousands  of  years  and  has  grown  so  ac- 
customed to  their  action  that  the  most  far- 
reaching  evils  were  not  discovered  until  mod- 
ern science  took  hold  of  the  liquor  problem. 
Alcohol  is  directly  and  indirectly  a  cause  of 
disease,  physical  and  mental,  to  an  extent  here- 
tofore claimed  only  by  the  most  extreme  of  its 
enemies.  Its  worst  consequence  is  its  insidious 
deterioration  and  keeping  down  of  the  classes 
persistently  using  it,  the  inherited  tendencies 
to  obtuseness  idiocy,  and  innumerable  vari- 
eties of  nervous  weakness  and  general  low- 
ered physical  vitality,  the  weakened  power  to 

269 


SOCIAL   WELFAKK   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

resist  disease,  the  tendency  toward  vice,  and 
crime — these,  by  vitiating  the  stock,  lay  up  a 
fearful  burden  for  future  generations.  The 
recent  massing  of  large  populations  in  great 
cities,  away  from  outdoor  exercise  and  fresh 
air,  greatly  increase  these  effects.  The  degree 
to  which  alcohol  has  nutritive  value  has  not 
been  determined.  Practically  it  can  never 
serve  as  a  general  article  of  food  because  of 
its  inherent  qualities  as  a  poison.  As  a  medi- 
cine it  should  be  administered  exclusively  by 
physicians  who  conscientiously  comprehend 
its  dangers. 

2.  Economically  the  liquor  traffic  consumes 
wealth  but  produces  nothing.  It  is  not  a  mere 
luxury.  It  injures  labor,  the  vital  factor  in  all 
production,  decreases  the  length  of  life,  and 
throws  upon  society  a  consequential  burden  of 
poverty,  imbecility,  inefficiency,  lunacy,  crime 
and  its  punishment,  and  in  general  incapacity, 
for  which  it  is  in  part  or  wholly  responsible, 
that  is  so  immense  as  to  be  almost  beyond  cal- 
culation. 

3.  The  saloon  is  not  merely  a  place  of  retail 
business ;  it  is  a  great  public  educational  insti- 
tution. It  influences  the  thought,  morals,  poli- 
tics, social  customs  and  conversation  of  its 
patrons — gives  a  bent  to  their  character — such 
as  the  grocery  and  shoe  store  never  do.  By 
suggestion,  example  and  its  emphasis  of  a  dis- 
torted meaning  of  pergonal  liberty,  it  teaches 
indulgence  of  the  h  tver  passions,  instead  of 
their  restraint,  and  creates  the  alcoholic  crav- 
ing as  a  new  one.  By  defying  restrictive  regu- 
lations it  breaks  down  respect  for  law.  It 
teaches  the  million  foreign  immigrants  that  an- 

260 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR  PROHIBITION 

nually  come  to  America  that  the  ballot  is  a 
commodity  to  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder  and 
trains  up  a  host  of  voting  citizens  opposed  to 
many  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Ameri- 
can liberty  and  justice. 

4.  The  saloon  furnishes  a  place  of  sociability 
and  relaxation  of  some  considerable  value  to 
the  poor  man  who  can  get  nothing  better.  This 
is  one  count  in  its  favor.  But  even  this  is  more 
than  counteracted  by  its  competition  with  the 
home  and  the  fact  that  the  enjoyment  there 
must  be  limited,  selfishly,  to  one  member  of 
the  family  while  the  wife  and  children,  equally 
needy,  must  sufi^er  all  the  more  on  account  of 
it.  The  alcohol  should  be  eliminated  and  the 
club  features  left  to  develop  in  a  normal  way. 

5.  It  is  only  on  its  sociability  side  that  the 
saloon  gets  any  ethical  support.  Aside  from 
this  slight  return  that  it  makes  to  the  one  class 
who  can  least  afiford  its  burdens,  "the  public 
saloon  and  saloon  system  is  a  vast  organized 
inciter  of  human  appetite.  It  is  an  omnipres- 
ent, publicly  sanctioned  temptation  to  evil.  It 
exists  not  because  man,  by  nature,  must  drink, 
but  because,  by  proper  incentives,  man  can  be 
made  to  drink,  and  there  is  money  in  selling 
it  to  him."^  For  this  reason  it  is  unreservedly 
condemned  by  the  church  as  unethical,  and 
should  be  declared  unconstitutional  and  an  out- 
law by  the  government.  The  placing  of  liquor 
selling  under  the  license  policy  grants  it  social 
standing,  permission  and  authority  and  makes 
each  citizen  responsible  for  the  character  and 
consequences  of  the  saloon.  There  can  be  no 
distinction,  on  moral  grounds,  between  the 
acts  of  the  men,  officials  and  parties  that  en- 

2dl 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

dorse  this  policy  and  those  of  the  dealer  who 
proposes  to  make  a  livelihood  out  of  the  vice 
of  intemperance.  The  voter  is  free  ethically 
only  when  he  has  protested  by  act  against  the 
principle  in  which  he  does  not  believe. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  user  the  mod- 
erate, self-contained  drinker  can  not  demand 
that  the  public  sale  of  that  which  injures  many 
of  his  fellows,  so  seriously,  shall  continue  on 
the  ground  that  the  consequences  of  his  own 
drinking  fall  upon  himself  alone.  The  right 
thing  for  him  is  to  give  it  up  willingly ;  if  he 
refuses  the  public  welfare  demands  that  he 
shall  be  compelled  to  do  so. 

The  Necessity  for  Complete  Overthrow. — 
Prohibition,  without  doubt,  is  a  severe  meas- 
ure. If  the  evils  arising  from  the  saloon  were 
such  that  they  could  be  cured  without  resort 
to  such  a  drastic  remedy,  the  principle  of  lib- 
erty in  American  democracy  would  demand 
that  it  should  be  done.  Legal  prohibition,  ap- 
plied to  manufacture,  sale  and  transportation, 
implies  the  removal  of  all  opportunities  for  ob- 
taining liquor  other  than  by  private  home  mak- 
ing for  personal  use.  As  a  matter  of  policy 
even  the  strongest  advocates  of  prohibition 
seldom  favor  making  the  act  of  drinking,  itself, 
illegal.  They  propose  simply  to  remove  the  open 
and  powerful  temptations  toward  creating  or 
increasing  the  habit,  being  convinced  that, 
since  the  desire  for  alcohol  is  abnormal,  it  will 
consequently  die  out  and  alcoholics  will  then 
not  be  missed. 

Some  of  the  unfortunate  results  doubtless 
can  be  removed  by  regulative  and  restrictive 
laws,  by  limiting  the  sale  to  certain  districts 

262 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR  PROHIBITION 

and  removing  it  altogether  from  resident  sec- 
tions of  cities.  Temperance  societies  may  do 
their  noble  work  of  rescue  and  prevention, 
counter  attractions  may  be  established  in  min- 
ing, factory  and  shop  neighborhoods,  and  bet- 
ter home  life  encouraged,  thereby  overcoming 
some  of  the  influence  of  the  saloon.  But  the 
latest  medical  and  sociological  science  show 
that  these  measures  are  very  incomplete  in 
themselves ;  that  the  great  characteristic  dan- 
gers are  inherent  in  the  liquor  and  the  trade 
themselves  and  can  be  reached  effectively  only 
by  complete  prohibition. 

Ethyl  Alcohol  is  the  essential  agent  in  all 
liquors  used  as  popular  drinks.  It  is  the  one 
necessary  ingredient  always  present  in  some 
proportion,  large  or  small.  It  is  the  intoxicat- 
ing element  that  gives  the  effect  desired  when 
drinks  of  any  kind  are  taken  for  their  own 
sake.  In  certain  liquors  other  poisons  are 
present  and  in  high  grade  wines  there  are  sev- 
eral by-products  of  distillation  that  injure  even 
more  quickly  than  alcohol,  but  generally  speak- 
ing, the  purest  liquors  are  the  worst. 

The  character  of  the  trade  seems  to  partake 
of  the  inherently  bad  qualities  of  the  article  it 
sells  to  the  public.  All  efforts  to  elevate  the 
saloon,  to  disentangle  it  from  social  and  politi- 
cal vice  and  to  prevent  its  encouragement  of 
excess  have  signally  failed.  Judging  by  a  hun- 
dred years  experience  the  evils  of  the  saloon 
are  not  contingent  and  can  not  be  separated 
from  it.  Where  exceptions  occur  they  are  due 
to  the  unusually  self-controlled  character  of 
the  community  or  nationality  where  such  retail 
sale  is  found.    The  saloon  is  the  chief  source 

363 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

of  morbid  and  degenerate  sociability.  Low 
morals  and  ideals  prevail ;  alcoholic  drinks  are 
a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  social  vice ; 
anarchy  and  crime  find  here  their  home.  "The 
bar  rather  than  the  bar-keeper,  is  the  source 
of  degeneracy,  and  if  every  saloon-keeper  emi- 
grated or  died  to-morrow,  and  the  saloons 
continued,  there  would  be  but  a  slight  or  tem- 
porary change  for  the  better."^ 

Its  public  educational  effects  are  absolutely 
unavoidable  as  long  as  the  trade  continues.  No 
other  institution  so  persistently  violates  law 
and,  by  its  example,  so  persistently  corrupts 
public  respect  for  law.  In  this  it  is  blighting, 
at  its  foundation,  the  necessary  means  to  social 
welfare  and  national  safety.  The  absolute  im- 
morality of  granting  legal  life,  permission  and 
authority  to  any  business  that  yields  such  con- 
sequences is  educating  downward  public  ideals 
and  the  moral  tone  of  the  nation.  This  dan- 
ger can  not  be  measured  but  is  more  menacing 
than  the  annual  drink  bill  of  nearly  $2,000,000,- 
000  or  the  heavy  loss  of  life  due  to  drink. 

As  supplemental  to  other  reform  efforts  the 
banishment  of  drink  is  imperative.  Private  and 
organized  movements  for  the  rescue  of  the 
drunkard,  to  provide  better  housing  and  sani- 
tation for  the  poor  of  the  city  slums,  toward 
cleaning  up  municipal  politics,  against  gam- 
bling and  other  similar  evils  need  to  have  the 
destruction  of  the  liquor  trade  accompany  or 
precede  their  advance  in  order  to  insure  real 
success.  City  missions,  coffee-houses,  rescue 
homes,  clubs  for  the  poor,  settlements,  and  a 
thousand  other  agencies  are  now  burdened  by 
the    fact    that    a    peculiar   co-operation    exists 

264 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR  PROHIBITION 

between  their  competing  enemy,  the  saloon, 
and  the  city  authorities  and  that  it  is  given  a 
privileged  protection,  on  account  of  the  fees 
and  "graft"  that  representatives  of  the  law 
and  the  city  treasury  get  out  of  it. 

The  liquor  trade  can  not  be  a  benefit  to  pub- 
lic welfare  in  one  community  and  a  danger  in 
another ;  the  above  facts  show  this  clearly.  It 
is  the  proper  function  for  the  state  to  deal 
with  the  problem.  Q\ny  local  form  of  govern- 
ment is  inadequate.  A  policy  at  least  as  wide 
as  the  state  should  prevail,  because  the  sources 
of  the  trouble  itself  are,  not  only  state,  but 
nation  wide^ 

Officialxmvestigation  in  Great  Britain,  fol- 
lowing the  South  African  war,  inspired  by  the 
fact  that  it  took  300,000  veteran  British  troops, 
supposed  to  be  the  best  soldiers  in  the  world, 
to  defeat  25,000  abstaining  Dutch  farmers, 
found  that  the  most  serious  causes  of  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  English  were  the  wide  use  of 
chemically  prepared  foods  and  the  increasing 
use  of  stimulating  liquors  by  the  classes  from 
which  the  troops  were  recruited.^  In  so  doing 
it  recognized  the  most  serious  danger  to  the 
trade  and  military  supremacy  of  the  nation. 

In  America,  where  the  per  capita  consump- 
tion is  somewhat  less  than  in  Great  Britain, 
but  where  it  is  yet  increasing  notwithstanding 
the  rapid  extension  of  local  prohibition  terri- 
tory, and  where  the  tenser,  nervous  life  and 
higher  requirements  make  alcoholic  deadening 
more  disastrous  to  the  individual  and  the  com- 
munity, national  prohibition  is  a  measure  of 
social  hygiene  more  and  more  imperative  from 
year  to  year.    Complete  enforcement  need  not 

265 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 

be  expected  all  at  once.  The  habits  and  cus- 
toms of  centuries  do  not  change  suddenly.  But 
the  public  social  act,  the  sale,  and  above  all, 
the  approval  of  government  must  be  stopped. 
That  it  can  be  done  has  been  conclusively  dem- 
onstrated. Politics  is  the  present  stronghold, 
the  final  resort,  of  the  liquor  trade.  Science 
has  routed  its  food  and  stimulating  claims ;  in- 
dustry is  enforcing  total  abstinence  in  many 
lines ;  and  even  its  legal  standing  is  found  to 
rest  more  on  the  public  psychological  effect  of 
the  license  granted  than  in  constitutional  law. 
The  most  necessary  move,  whether  it  comes 
first  or  accompanies  local  and  state  overthrow 
of  saloons,  community  by  community,  is  to  deal 
a  death-blow  to  the  political  source  and 
strength  of  the  traffic. 

From  this  pc-sonal  temperance  a  stronger, 
cleaner  type  of  national  manhood  will  follow, 
logically,  as  the  natural  output  of  cleaner  moral 
and  industrial  environment.  But  "it  would 
not  do  to  stigmatize  such  laws  as  attempts  'to 
reform  the  moral  conduct  of  others ;  or  to 
make  men  honest  and  virtuous  'by  a  system 
of  coercive  legislation.'  The  reform  may  fol- 
low, or  it  may  even  have  been  the  object  of 
those  enacting  the  law ;  but  it  follows  not  as 
a  coerced  reformation,  but  as  a  natural  result 
of  the  changed  condition  which  the  law  has 
created."^ 

References  and  Authorities. 

The  Social  Basis. 
International  Journal  of  Ethics,  Vol.  IX,  350-359. 
Kelynack,  "The  Drink  Problem,"  229-239,  122-151. 
266 


THE  SOCIAL  DEMANDS  FOR  PROHIBITION 

Pitman,  "Alcohol  and  the  State,"  110-129. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  299-305. 
Horsley   and    Stiirge,      "Alcohol    and    the    Human 

Body,"   313-341,   345-357. 
Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  26-29. 
'Fehlandt,  "A   Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  302. 

The  Necessity  for  Complete  Overthrow. 
Fehlandt,  "A  Century  of  Drink  Reform,"  139-171, 

299-305. 
Horsley    and    Sturge,    "Alcohol    and    the    Human 

Body,"   19-22. 
Artman,  "The  Legalized  Outlaw,"   165-169. 
Pitman,  "Alcohol  and  the  State,"   149-192. 
'Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  76. 
'Kelynack,  "The   Drink   Problem,"  230. 
'Wheeler,  "Prohibition,"  27. 


267 


N  DEX. 


Abstainers,  number  of,  in- 
creased, 12,  16,  33,  75,  129, 
199,  216. 

Abstinence,  total,  among  labor 
leaders,  222;  economic  value 
of,  99,  216;  required  by  busi- 
ness, 98;  by  church,  157;  by 
some  religions,  163. 

Adulterations  less  harmful 
than  alcohol,  46. 

Alcohol  , adulterations  of,  46; 
consumption  of,  12,  33,  74, 
76,  180,  199;  and  crime,  10, 
69,  92,  108,  112,  115.  119,  184, 
207,  223,  231,  247;  essential 
agent  in  all  liquors,  43,  263 ; 
in  drinks,  amount  of,  44;  as 
a  food,  47,  the  harmful  fac- 
tor of  all  drinks,  46;  as  a 
medicine,  55,  44;  a  poison, 
49,  170;  physiological  effects, 
42,  60,  64,  223;  reduces  men- 
tal capacity.  111 ;  reduces 
resistance  powers,  62 ;  re- 
duces race  vitality,  13,  67, 
112,  207,  209:  a  source  of 
disease,  59. 

Alcoholic  diseases,  61 ;  liquors, 
4;  classes  of,  43. 

American,  drink  bill,  74,  78. 

Attitude  of  church  toward  liq- 
uor traffic,  155;  popular, 
toward  liquor  changing,  12, 
16,  157. 

Attractions  of  saloon,  29,  35, 
132,    136,    139,    146;    counter 


attractions  to  saloon,  136, 
251. 

Attractiveness  of  liquor,  41,  42, 
223. 

Appetite,  created,  32,  35,  113; 
for  narcotics,  not  normal,  31, 
50,  60,  154,  163;  a  source  of 
liquor  problem,  27,   144,  252. 

Assimilation  of  foreigners  re- 
tarded,   181,   245. 

B 

Beer,   composition   of,    52;    de- 
ceptive effects  of,  54;  heat  pro- 
ducing value  of,  52;  a  liquid 
food,  50. 
Bible  and  liquor,  156. 
Bill,   drink,  74,  78. 
Brain,    effects    of    alcohol    on, 

111. 
Brewery,  an  employer  of  labor, 
225;    the   central    power,   33, 
125 ;    ownershin    of    saloons, 
34,   109,  239. 
Boss  rule,  antidote  for,   191. 
Burden    in    care    and    support 
due    to    drink,   90,    105,    151; 
of    intemperance     on     labor, 
212. 


Capital     and     labor     struggles, 

218.  220. 
Child  labor,  66,  114,  219. 
Children,  drink  among,   114. 
Church,  attitude  of,  155;  liquor 

and  missions,  163. 
Churches,  in  number  compared 


268 


INDEX 


with    saloons,    120,    159. 

Citizenship,  false  ideals  of, 
115,   183. 

City,  government  of,  178; 
growth  of,  178;  population, 
181;  the  city  nroblem,  177; 
stronghold  of  liquor,  34,  180 ; 
vote,  187. 

Clothing,  standard  of  living, 
198. 

Club,  origin  of,  13. 

Conflict  between  public  wel- 
fare and  private  liquor  inter- 
ests, 38.    151,  258. 

Consumption  of  alcohol,  12, 
33,  74,  76,  180,  199. 

Consumption  of  legitimate 
products  greatest  among  pro- 
ducers, 219;  reduced  by 
drink,  98,   105,  219. 

Corruption  in  cities,   178,   187. 

Cost,  care  of  dependents  etc., 
90;  of  drink  per  capita,  197; 
as  a  consequence  of  drink, 
public,  83,  90,  104,  151 ;  of  a 
man  to  society,  87;  of  strikes 
and  drink  compared,  224. 

Consequential  cost  of  drink, 
83,  90,  104,  151. 

Crime  and  drink,  69,  92,  112, 
115,  119,  184,  207,247;  among 
foreigners,  184,  119,  240. 

Counter  attractions  for  saloon, 
136,  251. 

Customs,  drinking  of  Euro- 
peans in  America,  182,  242. 

D 

Death  rate  among  drinkers, 
86,  101. 

Deceptive  effects  of  alcohol, 
42,  223. 

Decrease  in  number  of  drink- 
ers, 16,  180,  199;  in  use  of 
alcohol  as  medicine,  55. 


Demand,  economic,  for  prohi- 
bition, 103 ;  for  liquor  mono- 
polizes healthful   wants.  218. 

Delinquencies  and  disabilities 
in  children.   111. 

Disease,  alcoholic,  61 ;  alcohol 
as  a  source,  62,  59. 

Divorce,  208. 

Drink,  bill,  74,  78;  a  burden 
to  labor,  213,  224;  in  the 
family,  66,  195;  cuts  down 
food  supply,  197;  reduces 
earning  capacity,  96,  214, 
216;  a  cause  of  child  labor, 
66,  114,  219;  cause  of  under- 
consumption, 219;  cheapens 
labor  market,  215,  219;  per 
capita  cost,  197;  decreases 
demand  for  labor,  217,  226; 
and  divorce,  208;  in  race 
friction,  231 ;  its  heritage 
classified,  68;  and  immortal- 
ity, 66 ;  physiological  effects 
of,  42;  reduces  race  vitality, 
13,  67,  111,  207,  209;  and 
rent,  185,  196;  and  social 
evil,  67;  and  standard  of 
living,  195,  219;  and  strikes, 
223 ;  and  tenement  reform, 
186;  relation  to  wages,  215. 

Drinks,  alcoholic,  inherently 
intoxicating,   47. 

Drinking,  among  children,  114; 
early  in  America,  11,  15; 
customs  of  Europe  unsuited 
to  America,  182,  242;  in  18th 
century,  10;  habits  imported 
by  colonists,  11;  among  wo- 
men, 202;  wrong  "per  se"? 
25,   170. 

Duty  of  government  to  provide 
for  public  welfare,  36,  71, 
103,   171. 


269 


SOCIAL   WELFARE   AND  THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM. 


Early  drinking  customs  in  U. 
S.;il,  IS. 

Economic,  demands  for  pro- 
hibition, 103,  220;  results  of 
drink  on  family,  195,  214; 
sources  of  liquor  evil,  28,  31, 
144.  253,  260;  value  of  total 
abstinence,   99,  216. 

Education,  of  immigrants  by 
saloon,  116,  242,  246;  and  the 
liquor  problem,  108,  125 ; 
public  school,   108. 

Effects  of  beer  and  whiskey 
compared,  64;  of  drink  on 
standard  of  living,  195 ;  on 
rent,  185,  196,  206;  on  food, 
197;  on  clothing,  198;  on 
labor  problem,  216. 

Employment  of  labor  furnished 
trade,  81,  225 ;  two  kinds, 
226. 

Ethical  phase  of  license  policv. 
167,  184,  260,  264. 

Ethical  welfare,  harmony  of 
government  with,   170. 

Ethics  of  drinking,  25,  170 ;  of 
saloon  as  social  center,  149. 
F 

Family,  drink  bill,  66,  195,  214; 
social  ostracism  due  to  liq- 
uor, 200. 

Farmer's  share  of  liquor  re- 
ceipts, 79,  228. 

First  cost  in  drink  bill,  74,  78, 
102. 

Food,  alcohol  as,  47;  beer  as, 
50;  supply  of,  reduced  bv 
drink,  197. 

Forcing  system  of  saloons,  34. 

Foreigner?,  assimilation  of, 
181,  245 ;  corrupted  by  sa- 
loon, 119,  241;  crime  among, 
119,  184,  241. 


Foreign  drinking  customs  in 
America,  12,  182,  246;  ele- 
ment in  cities,  181,  239; 
countries,   liquor   in,    10,    163. 

Frauds,   liquor,    122. 
G 

Government,  and  morals,  Zl , 
171  ;  receipts  from  liquor 
trade,  104;  harmony  with 
ethical  welfare,   170. 

Growth  of  cities,   177. 
H 

Habits,  drink,  imported  early, 
11,  15;  of  foreigners,  12,  182, 
246;  and  trade  mutually 
cause  and  effect,  32. 

Health   the   first  essential,  69. 

Harmony  of  government  with 
welfare,   170. 

Heredity  and  drink,  67,  13, 
112,  204. 

Housing  problem,  185,  196; 
drink  hinders  tenement  re- 
form, 186. 

I. 

Immigrants,  educated  by  sa- 
loon, 116,  243.  246;  effects  of 
drink  on  different  classes, 
12;   number  of,  244. 

Immortality  and   drink,  66. 

Industrial   prohibition,   98,   216. 

Industries,  injured  bv  drink, 
97,  218. 

Inefficiency  due  to  drink,  67, 
97,  216;  of  British  troops, 
265. 

Insanity,  64. 

Increased  consumption  of  al- 
cohol, 12,  2>2>,  74,  76,  180,  199. 

Increased  number  of  total  ab- 
stainers, 12,  33,  16,  75,  129, 
199,  216. 

Increase  of  wages  alone  means 
increased   drunkenness,   224. 


270 


INDEX 


Intemperance  as  contributory 
cause  of  disease,  65 ;  among 
foreigners,  12,  114,  118,  182; 
greatest  in  cities,  180;  versus 
poverty,  66,  105,  88,  231;  a 
race  characteristic,  9,  163 ; 
reduces  race  vitality,  13,  67, 
111,  207,  209. 

Intoxicant,  meaning  of  term, 
45;  alcohol  inherently  intoxi- 
cating, 47. 

Intoxicants  monopolize  health- 
ful wants,  218. 

Intoxication  from  pure  liquors, 
46. 

Is  alcohol  a  food?  47. 

Is  beer  a  liquid  food?  50. 

L 

Labor,  burden  of  drink,  212; 
capital,  struggle  with,  218, 
220;  drink  bill,  213,  224;  de- 
mand for  reduced  by  drink, 
217,  226;  efficiency  affected, 
216;  the  farmer,  228;  market 
cheapened     by    liquor,    207 ; 

oppressor  of,  allied  with  liq- 
uor, 221 ;  sober,  essential  to 
welfare,  97;  supply  of,  and 
insistency,  216;  unions,  221. 

Labor's  heaviest  handicap,  212, 
222;  share  of  receipts  from 
liquor  trade,  81,  226. 

Law  of  supply  and  demand, 
distorted,  31,  32. 

Legal  overthrow,  251,  253,  255, 
257. 

Liberty  versus  saloon,  116,  123, 
183. 

Liberty,  personal,  25,  38,  117, 
153,   183,  242,  247,  262. 

License,  and  local  option,  172; 
the  policy,  ethics  of,  167,  184, 
260,  264. 

Life,    loss    of,    86.    100;    length 


of,  53,  100,  87. 

Loss,  due  to  traffic,  85;  of 
time,  and  capacity,  85,  97; 
of  life,  86,  100. 

Liquor,  consumption  for  a 
year,  74;  increased  consump- 
tion, 12,  33,  74,  76,  180,  199; 
and  education,  108;  as  an 
employer  of  labor,  81,  225; 
in  race  conflicts,  233 ;  enemy 
to  labor,  82,  221 ;  and  the 
length  of  life,  53,  87,  100; 
and  national  welfare,  205; 
against  other  industries,  98, 
151;  a  hinderance  to  mis- 
sions, 163 ;  and  union  labor, 
221. 

Liquor  evil,  one  of  conse- 
quences, 25. 

Liquor  problem,  complexity  of, 
20;  two  meanings  in  current 
use,  19;  what  is  it?  17; 
strongholds,  the  cities,  34, 
180. 

Liquor  traffic,  advertising,  50, 
44,  121;  farmer's  support? 
228;  in  foreign  countries,  10, 
163;  judged  by  social  conse- 
quences, 27;  a  law  breaker, 
117,  234,  241;  opposed  by 
churches,  155;  in  politics, 
178,  187;  profitable,  28;  a  so- 
cial institution,  21 ;  wastes 
raw   products,    198. 

Lynching  and  drink,  234. 

M 
Medicine,   alcohol   as,    44,    55 ; 

decrease  in  use  of,  55. 
Mental     capacity     reduced     by 

drink.   111. 
Methods  of  solution,  251. 
Mis-education,      of      foreigner, 

115,    183,    240,    246;    of    the 

public.   121,  264. 


271 


SOCIAL  WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 


Mob  violence  and  drink,  234. 
Moderate  drinking,  danger  of, 

68. 
Missions,  liquor  hinders,  163. 

N 

Narcotics,  appetite  for,  31,  50, 
60. 

National  wealth  and  social 
welfare,  96. 

Natural  demand  for  stimulants, 
42. 

Necessity  for  complete  over- 
throw,' 181,  262. 

Negro  and  crime,  233;  de- 
bauched by  white  man's  liq- 
uor, 233 ;  and  drink,  230 ;  not 
an   inebriate,  230. 

Newspapers  controlled  by  traf- 
fic, 124. 

Number  of  drinkers,  est.,  44, 
154. 

O 

Origin  of  saloon  and  club,  13, 
222. 

P 

Padrone    sj^stem,    119. 

Patent  medicine,  advertising, 
46,  121. 

Personal  liberty,  25,  38,  117, 
152,  154,  183,  242,  247,  262. 

Physiological,  action  of  alco- 
hol, 42,  223,  60,  64;  source 
of  liquor  evil,  27,  41,  144, 
252. 

Poison,  alcohol  a,  49,   170. 

Police  powers  of  government, 
171. 

Political  boss,  hold  on  ignorant 
vote,  118,  183;  works 
through  saloon,  118,  164,  187, 
240 ;  machine  of  Cox,  in  Cin- 
cinnati,   189. 

Politics,   liquor  traffic,   in,   178, 


187;  power  in,  30,  118,  184, 
187,  240. 

Political  source,  29,  126,  144, 
257,  187. 

Poor  man's  club,  134. 

Povertv  due  to  drink,  66,  88, 
231,  '105. 

Powers  of  resistance  reduced, 
62. 

Producers  share  of  money 
from,  drink,  79. 

Producing  capacity  destroyed, 
96,  216. 

Profits  of  the  trade,  28,  81, 
152. 

Prohibition,  demands  for,  eco- 
nomic, 103,  253;  physical,  69, 
252;  political,  170,  257;  so- 
cial, 143,  255 ;  versus  license, 
172;  necessity  for,  262;  a 
method  of  solution,  251 ;  re- 
duces crime,  247;  a  right  of 
government,  265 ;  sentiment 
in  the  South,  237,  248. 

Public  opinion,  on  liquor 
changing,   12,    16,   157. 

R 

Race,  cause  of  friction,  231 ;  a 
characteristic  of  the,  9,  163 ; 
problems  of  America,  244: 
riots,  233,  243 ;  vitality  re- 
duced by  drink,  13,  67,  HI, 
207,  209,  259. 

Races,  different,  how  affected, 
10.  12. 

Ratio  of  saloons  to  churches, 
120,  159. 

Reform  the  saloon,  the  Sub- 
way  Experiment,   140,  263. 

Relation  of  drink  h\\\  to  neces- 
sities,   198;    to    poverty,    8S 
236,     66;     to     wages,     215 
sources     to     solution,     251 
trade  to  the  habit,  31,  154. 


272 


INDEX 


Rent  affected  by  saloon,  185. 

Responsibility  of  voter,  169, 
262. 

Restrictions  as  a  solution,  251, 
253,  255.  257. 

Revenue,  government  receipts, 
104;  an  intrenchment  of  the 
traffic,  126;  from  liquor  traf- 
fic, 79. 

S 

Safety  of  public,  first  duty  of 
government,    36,    71. 

Saturation  policy  of  brewers, 
34. 

Saloon,  in  assimilation,  social 
and  political,  239;  attraction 
of,  35,  29,  134,  136,  139,  146; 
two-fold  capacity  of,  13 ;  in 
Chicago,  34;  not  merely  a 
city  problem,  192 ;  as  a  club, 
14,  134;  competitor  of 
church,  120,  158,  184;  of 
home,  201,  207;  counter  at- 
tractions to,  136,  251 ;  ene- 
my to  best  social  life,  135, 
139,  153;  factor  in  race  fric- 
tion, 233 ;  in  foreign  field, 
163 ;  and  housing  problem, 
185 ;  keepers  bound  to  brew- 
ers, 35 ;  keeper  not  the 
source  of  the  evil,  187;  op- 
posed by  churches,  157;  op- 
posed to  American  institu- 
tions, 117,  241,  246;  opposed 
to  liberty,  116,  123,  183; 
owned  by  brewery,  34,  239, 
109;  origin  of,  13;  patrons, 
classes  of,  132;  power  in- 
creased by  immigration,  115, 
183,  246;  power  in  politics, 
30,  118,  184,  187.  240;  and 
public  school,  108;  as  a  so- 
cial center,  14,  131,  152;  a 
wrong  per  se,  171 ;  263. 


School,  public,  and  the  saloon, 
108. 

Sober  labor  essential,  97;  nec- 
essary to  struggle  with  capi- 
tal. 223. 

Sociability  source  of  intemper- 
ance,  129,  206,  261. 

Social  consequences,  basis  of 
action,  26;  of  judgment  of 
the  liquor  traffic,  27. 

Social  demands,  39,  150,  170, 
173,  205,  258. 

Social    evil   and   drink,   67. 

Social  ethics  of  the  saloon,  149. 

Social  institution,  the  saloon, 
a,  21. 

Social  source,  29,  13,  21,  129, 
255. 

Social  welfare,  the  basis  of 
legislation,  27,  2,7,  131.  258. 

Solution,    methods   of,   251. 

Sources  of  liquor  evil,  27,  251 ; 
economic,  28,  31,  144,  253, 
260;  physiological,  27,  144, 
253;  political,  29,  144, 
257.  187;  social,  21,  29,  13, 
129,  255 ;  of  intoxication,  43 ; 
of  race  degeneracy,  13,  67, 
HI. 

Standard  of  living,  195,  219. 

Strikes,  cost  of,  224. 

Struggle,  between  capital  and 
labor,  220. 

Substitution    as    a    temperance 

'  measure,  143,  251,  252,  254, 
256.^  257. 

Substitutes  for  the  saloon,  136, 
143.  201. 

Subway  tavern,  141. 

Suffering  unit,  the,  199. 

T 

Temperance,    agitation     begin- 
ning,    16;     instruction,     100; 
first  society,   16. 
273 


SOCIAL   WELFARE  AND  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 


Tenement   house   reforms,    186. 

Test  of  a  method  of  sokition, 
251. 

Time,  loss  of  due  to  drink,  85, 
97. 

Total  abstinence,  economic 
value,  99,  216;  increased  75, 
12,  16.  33,  129,  199,  216; 
among  laborers,  222;  re- 
quired by  business,  98;  by 
churches,  157;  by  some  relig- 
ions,  163. 

Trade,  relation  of  habit  to,  32. 

Traffic,  in  foreign  field,  163. 

Tragedy  at  Atlanta,  235. 

Treating  custom,  215. 
U 

United  Societies  in  Chicago, 
242. 


Vitality  of  race  reduced  by  al- 
cohol, 13,  67,  111,  207,  209. 

W 

Wages,  affected  by  drink,  96, 
215 ;  increase  alone  of,  in- 
creases drunkenness,  224; 
lowered  by  introduction  of 
women  and  children,  207. 

Waste   of   raw   product,   198. 

Welfare  of  public  and  private 
interests,  conflict,  38,  104, 
258;  of  society  as  a  whole, 
36,  71,  27  \  of  society  the 
basis  of  legislation,  37. 

Women,  drink  among,  202;  la- 
bor introduced  on  account  of 
drink,   219,   66. 


274 


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